A logo/title design will be posted later (once it actually exists). Until then, enjoy the lone picture of the heroine, looking as dapper as ever.
A Strange God Reigns
Synopsis
Forced out of her hometown of Cokemill as a child to avoid execution as a “red-haired witch”, Constance has lived the last ten years peacefully in the depths of neighboring forest, whose reputation as a cursed forest keep the fearful townspeople away from it. Other than her father, who shows up twice a month to bring her supplies, she sees no one. Her quiet life is thrown into chaos when the heir of an aristocratic family is kidnapped by a mercenary group, who escape into the forest for protection. Faced with these unknown criminals and the bulk of Cokemill’s police force prowling through her forest, Constance decides that she has no choice but to hide into her tree cabin and hope for the best.
Things go downhill from there.
Characters
Constance
The rumored “Witch of the Gray Forest”, a young woman who had to escape Cokemill as a child because of her red hair. Years of isolation and hardship having taken its toll, Constance is hostile, distrustful, and very irritable. Nevertheless, she does take pride in the modest life she’s managed to etch out in her little forest corner, and has no real grudge against her hometown. Of course, make the mistake of calling her a witch to her face and her wrath will be incandescent. When she isn’t hunting for food or chopping lumber, she spends her time reading the books her father give her.
Elliot DeLaurentis
A police guard from Cokemill. Having grown up in a church-run orphanage, Elliot is very pious, and gladly devotes his life to helping others. Unfortunately, that same religious faith has made him a believer, and by extension, a first-class hater of all things deemed ungodly and heretical—such as witches. So far he’s yet to encounter any unholy beings, but all that bottled-up paranoia will have to be unleashed somehow. A workaholic by nature, Elliot seems to almost get personal joy out of ignoring his health in favor of his duties, a habit that’s landed him in the hospital more than a few times.
Geoffrey Beckett
The eldest son and heir of the Beckett family, a family of old money in Cokemill, and a war hero in his own right. With an eloquent demeanor to hide his insanity, Geoffrey is happily and unrepentantly self-destructive. Most of his days are spent in the pubs, drinking and picking fights he can’t win. His family and doctors attributes his disturbing behavior to post-war trauma and depression. Yet despite this, he is one of the few people in Cokemill who doesn’t believe in witchcraft. He has a severe limp in his left leg, an unfortunate souvenir from the battlefield, though he can walk if he has crutches.
*More characters will be introduced, but those will be the primary three. Elliot and Geoffrey's concept art will also be posted soon.
I list the genre as adventure mostly because it has a fantasy-like setting, what with it being set in an historical England setting (except 1800s, instead of medieval), but doesn't actually have magic. Also, I claim no historical accuracy at all. For one thing, red hair as a sign of witchcraft was popular maybe in medieval times, but this is more late-1700s to early-1800s. For another, the chance of a 3p ending in 1800s England is--not high.
Since I'm trying to keep things simple, there won't be bad endings specific to each guy. So far I'm looking at:
Elliot's ending
Geoffrey's ending
3p ending
Obligatory Bad ending (a very, very miserable one, to make up for all those mini-bad endings I couldn't have)
And, as for the progress report so far:
Concept art: 30%
First draft script: 65%
Everything else is stuck at zero Orz. A very amazing friend will be working on the coding and music composition, as well as editing. Once I finish the first draft and revise it, I'll have her start the coding, while I work on the rest of the art. Hopefully we can finish this thing before summer and move on to another project. Since this is an experimental project, expect some things to be wonky. But we'll both make sure that everything is as polished as can be before releasing it. So again, if anyone has tips or suggestions, it'd be great if you can share it!
For more detailed updates (so I won't spam this forum) I'll probably post it at my game blog: http://paper-train.blogspot.com/
And my apologies if I mess up on posting. It's been a long time since I used forums, so I'm more accustomed to my dark hole than anything.
