Lemma Soft Forums

If nightmares only exist in our dreams, and monsters only exist in the imagination...
...Then what could possibly be worse than being left alone with our thoughts?

Overview:
The game follows the story of Mimi, a girl who suffers from a strange condition no doctor has been able to help her understand: A bizarre, unnatural reaction to silence. When it's silent, strange noises emerge, strange presences lurk behind the corners, and strange visions come to life. Over time, she learns to keep herself safe by staying busy and being surrounded by noise. Her efforts have been fruitful, and the strange dreams have since subsided.

Years later, Mimi is a third year student at the Institute of New Vasilievsky, a medical research organization that has recently opened a school. With a valedictorian status, lots of friends, and a bright carreer in front of her, Mimi is living out the ideal school life in the ideal school environment. When life is this good, she can't help it if she forgets her purpose for coming here in the first place.

One day, an earthquake shakes the school. Places that should be hidden away are opened, knowledge that should be missing are scattered, and Mimi's condition grows progressively worse. With her sanity at stake, Mimi now has to pick up the pieces laid before her and put together the truth before it's too late.

Will the answers she finds finally bring back her peace of mind? Or will the school's dark secrets plunge her further into madness?

Background and Notes:
Originally titled "Kankaku Phantom", Sedatophobia is a project I started around January this year. It's a story inspired by my recent fascination with the themes found in cosmic horror and HP Lovecraft(particularly Persona 3, Colour Out of Space, and the totally inaccurate yet totally cool Demonbane) as well as the opportunity to explore the subject of silence and solitary confinement.

Concept art:
http://sta.sh/01wo53dd3giw
http://sta.sh/04hr8b23mj0
http://sta.sh/0edb8rk5q5
I'm still in that transition stage of trying to get my art style to fit the themes I have in mind, but at least the script is making progress. I've hired another artist to work on the BGs and between the two of us we can probably get this done in about... A year or two. And then there's sounds, music and UI, so maybe longer...

The game itself is an experiment to me as well. There is only one underlying plotline and one ending, but how it unfolds is dependent on player choices.

As a story, it's intended to be somber in tone, carry dark themes, as well as have disturbing/morbid scenarios(R-18+). While I know the general direction I want this project to go, I'm not sure if such a game would find an interested audience from the Ren'py community given the large number of lighthearted ren'ai on the submission pages. I'd rather not show up to a wedding with a Death Metal costume.

Would anyone here be interested in reading something like this?

Update: Art assets are now being handled by Jedidiah and Danielle, and music by F.Sison.

I'm interested in this and I think others will too! I'm into really dark themes too. It's going into my work. xD

The plot interested me with finding the dark secrets of the school and curious how it will play out. Also, I like the concept art also as well. Never read much of silence and solitary confinement so I'm going to see how it goes.

Good luck.

Edit: Told ya.

Seems really interesting~
:v honestly, I don't really like to read things without a hint of dark stuff in it. (I apologize to everyone working on an otome game....)
The concept art looks superb~ :3

One of the characteristics of being an adult is being able to enjoy both the sweet and bitter flavours in life. I think Cross Channel taught me that...

Anyway, yes, bring on the darkness. It's better to mix it with stuff that's a bit lighter and sweeter, because it just makes the bitter elements stand out that much more.

Me too, hahaha, I'm very interested in this. I'm really curious about her phobia and how it will shape the story, since the story itself seems to be built around it.

I really like this story concept; from a personal standpoint, I feel like I could really identify with and enjoy the protagonist since I've got a similar issue where sitting in silence for too long makes me feel like disasters are going to happen, and I have to fill things up with noise or my emotional state goes south very quickly. Ironically, I picked up my problem in the aftermath of an earthquake, so the synopsis definitely hits close to home, haha.

The dark themes sound interesting, too. I really like Persona 3, so seeing it listed as an inspiration for this also has me interested. All around, cool concept, and I'm excited to see where it goes!

Your story concept really stands out, as does your concept art.

What really stands out in the concept art for me are your monsters, and I can't wait to see them realized, as I think they will be genuinely disturbing. I also really like the way you do character design- no two characters look too much alike in the lineup.

I encourage that you are going to get dark! I think there should be more dark visual novel and adventure type games out there, and I'm glad to see I'm not the only one that wants to see dark, dark, dark. I don't mind light and cheery, but I think what you have in mind is the type of game I want to make and the kind of story I want to see in a VN/adventure game myself. H.P. Lovecraft is also one my influences, so that really makes me like the synopsis of what you have written.

I will be supporting your project, and I hope you inspire others to make similar horror projects as well!

As of the moment I'm putting together enough assets for a playable demo. Sound effects are free resources but I don't know what I can do about the music- I'd love to use licensed tracks as placeholders but fear the consequences of redistribution of licensed content(There's gotta be a horror franchise out there based on the Terrors of Copyright Laws). This will probably take me about two months, I hope you'll be around to check it out then!

I look forward to the demo!

Spent half of today designing a logo. I put it on the OP post. I hope it came out okay.

This sounds really interesting, I am looking forward to this! and this is coming from one that tends to shy away from darker themes because scary stuff has the ability to give me nightmares.

I think the concept art is very nice, especially one of the monsters in the first link with a face on a human torso!

Sounds pretty interesting. I'm a big fan of Demonbane and the Persona series myself. It might be cool if you could absorb elements of AKIRA's artwork for Liarsoft's Steampunk series into the style.

I like the logo! Especially those buttons. Haha. Kinda ironic once you think about it but... haha, well, yeah. Anyway, good luck!

These are thumbnails and sketches I do whenever I'm not writing, for CGs, sprites, and a few extras, so I can get started easier when the draft is done.

http://sta.sh/023f39a31kbc
http://sta.sh/0dybstiifnu
http://sta.sh/023kf3o4fte0

I so want to play this... as a years-long fan of Lovecraft's stories I approve of this project!