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Maienzauber – Visual Novel Overview
Maienzauber or “Miracles of May” is a romantic visual novel set in an Austrian co-ed boarding abbey school located in Baden bei Wien. The main character is a brilliant young man who has just transferred to the school. He has his own identity and family issues but he hopes that the new school would be able to remedy that. There he will encounter 4 potential love interests who may change his life – for better or worse.

The project is still in preconcept development stage; we have already fixed on the setting (in Austria) as well as the main characters, some of the general key specific side characters and two of the target girls but we are still very open on the plot convergence - we need more people and find how you can help here!

Our project is semi-commercial, meaning our effort to create the game is a completely voluntary affair but we have big plans on paid expansion routes as well as artbook/soundtrack sales! Currently our team consists of me as a Project Director (and concept artist), a co-Director who doubles as a programmer, a writer, an artist, a BG artist, and a cultural advisor. We are opening positions for Writer, Artist, Musician, and will have future openings for Editor and Community Manager.

VN Route Specifics
The novel spans 6 chapters divided into 4 chapters of high school and 2 chapters of after high school (maybe college life maybe straight to work). There are two compulsory “full chapter” endings but we do not specify how many “early” ends. This highly depends on the route structure detailed elsewhere. There is a uniform timeline for all routes but we can be creative on how light / intense / short / long per chapter is, depending on the girl concerned. If the route concerned deals with intense relationship in high school then in high school is where most of the route will be concentrated. If it is after the school then it will be after school where it intensifies. However there is a strict route structure that have to be conformed and the story is weaved onto it rather than individually.

VN Theme
Topics & themes dealt within the game need not to be very deep or complicated – it may even be just a simple indulgent love story, but the highly detailed and cultural setting of the background enables the character to deal with issues (around but not limited to) of closure family conflict and identity issues, feelings of displacement, secularity vs religion, marriage as a life commitment/part of relationship, and/or defining the commitment in the first place – this is all in addition to the themes that individual character may have. Note not all routes need to have good ending and not all routes needs to have sex element in it – sometimes the best ending may be about letting go.

Main Characters

Martin
Our Protagonist: A new transfer student from the capital - he has some family and identity issues that he seek to address somehow. He is a bit skeptical of this transfer arranged by his parents (to a Catholic school nonetheless!) but he went through it anyway. Has a rebellious sister. He is also quite good in his studies and an excellent tennis player.

Theresa
A very chirpy and jolly girl, she can instantly be recognized by the Burgundy beret she constantly wears as well as the wheelchair she required for mobility. Also a transfer student who had just completed her transfer just before the protagonist came in. Has quite a high taste in entertainment.

Katharina
A haughty girl on first impression but actually quite a lovable girl. Daughter of a well-known vintner who has their own Heuriger. She is a bit conflicted whether to continue on her family business or pursuing her own dreams. Her growing interest to the protagonist threw a third conflict into the bunch! A definite tsundere archetype.

Some concept art that we have done;

Uniforms:




Protagonist:


Theresa


Katharina


Sprite Testing


School BG






Our Project Twitter Here:
https://twitter.com/GoldenenVlies

Coming soon: Website + Project Blog

We are recruiting too! Check it out...

If you are interested to work with us, please leave a message here, PM me, or email me at gf.creativeproductions@gmail.com along with a link or couple samples of your work! We look forward to work together with you!
All feedbacks are welcome!

Golden.Fleece wrote: Maienzauber or “Miracles of May” is a romantic visual novel set in an Austrian co-ed boarding abbey school located in Baden bei Wien. The main character is a brilliant young man who has just transferred to the school. He has his own identity and family issues but he hopes that the new school would be able to remedy that. There he will encounter 4 potential love interests who may change his life – for better or worse.

Sounds slightly similar to Somnova Studios' work-in-progress Missing Stars. It's a story with boy x girl pairings, set in a private school near Vienna. (Their overall theme is mental illness. Read their FAQ for more.) Don't panic, but keep in mind that you'll benefit from making sure your work can be easily distinguished from theirs.

Golden.Fleece wrote: Our project is semi-commercial, meaning our effort to create the game is a completely voluntary affair but we have big plans on paid expansion routes as well as artbook/soundtrack sales!

Giving away the VN and selling spinoffs is an interesting idea. I expect (and hope that) other people will have insights and recommendations.

gekiganwing wrote: Sounds slightly similar to Somnova Studios' work-in-progress Missing Stars. It's a story with boy x girl pairings, set in a private school near Vienna.

Only natural because I was an ex Somnova (founding) studio member - back when it was still called Mentaru Shoujo. It was me as well who recommended Vienna and prepared the project groundwork, research, as well as early recruitment of artists before I resigned earlier this year.
While I am aware of the superficial similarities, do rest assured that knowing the actual premise and a lot of the character plots of MS, I can confidently said that our VN is different enough - we share only the same country as a setting.

gekiganwing wrote: Giving away the VN and selling spinoffs is an interesting idea. I expect (and hope that) other people will have insights and recommendations.

Thanks for your input and certainly this is what we have in mind. We had a couple of expansions already prepared into the groundwork (2 of the side characters may be expandable to date-able route girl in the paid expansion) but we keep an open mind as always.

Edit: LOL fixed image codes because dropbox doesn't allow coding and/or corrupt the views.

This looks great! I love the artwork so far and I really do hope you continue to keep us posted on the progress.

I checked this out because the name sounded German to my foreign ears... haha, and came here to see that it's set in Austria. Pretty close. Haha. I'm really glad it has such an interesting setting. Oh, and... this may seem petty, but for that alone, I'm looking forward to this. :") I am in love with the German language. Loooool.

Aside from that that though, I have to say, the art is awesome. <3 And that sketch of the school. Ahh, beautiful, just beautiful.

Anyway, I wish you the best of luck! Haha. )

The Austrian setting intrigues me (strokes chin thoughtfully)

Katharina looks pretty cool :3 And the BGs look awesome (despite being sketches)

Good luck finishing the game!

According to an @GoldenenVlies tweet from November, "Full Production to begin 1 Jan 2014!" Hopefully things are starting well.

gekiganwing wrote:According to an @GoldenenVlies tweet from November, "Full Production to begin 1 Jan 2014!" Hopefully things are starting well.

well we are encountering some issues as our project needs apparently expanded pretty exponentially - about 50 scenes per character for every chapter and 1 chapter divided into two sub chapters due to the growing climax of the storytelling.. We are currently doing route structures. Will post more updates to recruitment thread + making a new thread in WIP in the near future.