namio | ideas thread

[Ghost of Crux]

The horrible thing about creating is that once you have an idea already set to be done, five more pops out.
This thread will hold them as I try to finish out the others.

1. Lacking Grace
3. The Blind Eye
4. Passivity
5. Wonderlust
6. Inspirasi (tentative title)
7. Things Not Seen
8. Sewing It Back Together

[next to get worked on: Passivity. next next to get worked on: unknown]

------------

Mystery | Drama

Detective Alton Nichols has always had it good. His career is on the rise and he's still at his prime in his mid thirties, and he has the most loyal, put together woman as his wife. He's got a few bad points-- he can't resist women, and he's prone to not coming home thanks to work-- but who doesn't have flaws? Something has to offset all the good in his life, after all.

And then he's assigned to a high profile murder of a wealthy man, and his wife is divorcing him.
The media are eating up the story, and the need for answers is at an all-time high. Claire doesn't want to see him and just hands him the papers. With his superiors demanding the closing of the case and his wife demanding the divorce to be done as quickly as possible, what can he do?

And the worst of all-- why does he feel like the two events are related?



Claire
A first grade teacher, Claire has a pool of patience that most do not possess. She's quiet and mostly keeps in the company of books, though she is close to the few she calls friends and family.

Artemisia
A cousin of Alton, Artemisia is a bit strange. Though the only heiress to a large company and a fortune, she chose to enter law and became a private investigator. It's a bit hard to get in contact with her at times, but Alton always trusts her to come back. Claire was her tutor at one point, being the few she'd listen to as a child. As such, they're very close.

Nate
Claire's cousin who might as well be her brother. These two are tight-knit and Alton often finds them gossiping-- a pastime neither of them liked to indulge, but they indulge it with each other nonetheless-- and if there's anyone Claire trusts without question, it's him.

Connor
Claire's younger brother. He tries to act cool and unfazed but is a sensitive, desperate person at heart, and finds himself often stepped on by the cold people he surrounds himself with. Claire's overprotective personality angers him as he's often the victim of her smothering, and thanks to it, they've driven a wedge in their relationship not a year ago. Looks up to Alton.

Features:

> 2 endings, with 6 minor variations for how it really ends (???)
> Minor detective works, not the main focus
> Get back in touch with your in laws and other parts of the family to get better sense of the situation (No, it's not "horror")




Drama | Romance



Princess Zerathine is everything the people love-- proactive, kind, and idealistic. She encourages public education, she encourages small businesses and trade, and she is merciful. She's everything a royalty should be.

She's everything the nobility hates.

When a war threatens to break with a neighbourhood kingdom, she is sent to live under disguise as a normal woman. But as she relishes the chance to influence the people directly, someone orders for her death, and Rollan, a poor man with starving mother and sisters, takes up the job. Love always seems inevitable.

But love has no place between idealism and the harsh truth.

Features:

> Romance, with almost no romance endings
> ~2 endings
> Somewhat short, perhaps ~15-20k words or less



Paranormal | Suspense

Artemisia knows her life is a bit weird, but helping someone with their haunting through Skype is a bit... too weird. Still, Piper is insistent, and she wants to prove that there are ghosts in the run down place in the depths of a tiny Welsh village. Usually Artemisia wouldn't even dare approving such a stunt without her on site, but Piper's already there, and if she ends the call, it's just going to get worse.

The thing is, she doubts she's really ready to hold someone's life in her hands.



Features:

> A L O T O F C H O I C E S
> Therefore, a lot of endings, most of them somewhere in the spectrum of "bad".



Drama | Politics | Celtic Fantasy
GxG


When Saerlaith became a servant to the local Lord, she did it for her sick, dying mother. The Lord promised to have a doctor look after her in exchange of her presence, and she agreed, because-- it her mum, and she loves her so very much, she'd go miles--

But then things took turn for the worse. It always did.

But Saerlaith didn't expect to be the Queen of the Winter Court, didn't expect this sudden position of power and politics-- especially not when she was still fully human, especially not when she had always thought that the fairies were simply a hidden race. Especially not when she was only barely literate, and had lived her entire life as a launderer. Especially when she realised that her circumstances were not merely coincidences.

War was brewing and the Queen of the Summer Court kept vetoing her husband's decision to join. Osla, a human ambassador between humans and the fairies, kept softening her heart. The problems within the Winter Court and her people kept piling up.

How was she supposed to survive this?


Features:

> Make political decisions
> 1 love interest subplot
> 1 ending with multiple variations
> 4 acts

Planning in progress.

Agak Ngaco Sedikit
Slice of Life | Morons | Indonesian setting
optional GxB

Annisa Nugroho is in need of both inspiration and research for her novel. A high school student, she's mostly a pretty placid one-- her best friend Shinta is pretty much her only friend, but eh, she's the greatest one. They're practically inseparable.

Sadly, she also makes sense at all the wrong times. When Nisa decides that perhaps researching urban legends in the local area might give her idea. Shinta, however, gets the wrong one.

"You can't be writing a paranormal romance set here. That's terrifying."

"Good God, Shin, go pray in the mosque."

BASICALLY; Two Indonesian girls get into mishaps while they do very mundane things and rethink their life choices. Also: Indonesian legends and myths.

[Ghost of Crux]

[ the big project post ]

Paranormal | Mystery | Suspense

November 6th, 2011.
Nozomi Toulson was found dead in her kitchen, murdered in a grotesque way.
Five days later, her son disappeared.

November 11th, 2011.
Artemisia Roschild has been on the road for three days, driving from Scotland to Wales-- an act that's both driven by and causing her father's immense ire. But he's not what's important. Her entire life she's been wanting to know the answer to one question: why can't the ghosts she love move on? And someone promised her they know the answers.

Delbert Toulson can't believe his life sometimes. It's almost as if stumbling to the sight of his mother's mangled corpse wasn't bad enough-- now Will has disappeared, and his father doesn't even bother to immediately fly back from Japan to take care of shit like the funeral. Even better-- someone tells him that they know where Will is.

Aeval Morgan-Cermak has always lived a pretty happy life. She's got a great relationship with her father-- mother died back when she was five-- and while Will is a bit dense, she's willing to keep pursuing him. But then her father comes home late and Will disappears, seemingly kidnapped, and her world is thrown into a loop.

All these three events are related.

Aeval Morgan-Cermak

A cheerful girl with unbelievable amount of energy, Aeval is always too much for anyone. She's in track team and she's active in music, and to anyone who knows her on a surface level, she's a sunshine-- too bright, perhaps, and not in the intelligence sense, but bright nonetheless.
But that's just the surface.
Aeval is also a spoiled child, a result of having a single father who tends to ask her opinion on everything and promises her things to keep her complacent. Their relationship is close and they're always honest to each other, but the second she thinks he's lying, the world might as well explode.

Delbert Toulson
Delbert is always seen to be the stereotypical popular bad boy, and for the most part, he lives up to that title. He doesn't partake in anything too edgy, though-- his father, a workaholic businessman bent on acquiring more and more and more, takes the brunt of his anger most of the time, though only in spirit. The man himself is never home, and Delbert would like to keep it that way.
Other than his reputation, though, he's decent. He's reasonably nice to his brother, though they're no longer close, and they only fight about what pizza to get and which color to get an electric guitar in.
It's only when tragedy strikes that his true strengths shine.

Wilhelm Toulson
If siblinghood is a battle of maturity, Will wins, despite being the younger brother. He likes things simple: he writes, he plays the guitar, and he helps his friends-- namely, Aeval and Lucia-- with their homework. He listens to his mother and talks with her over meals, and he always finishes his food.
Her death strikes him hard.
Having seen her corpse, he's practically mute the days after. Usually reasonable, now Delbert has to watch over him every second to make sure he is doing the bare basic to live. The other times Delbert leaves him alone, he's locked up in his room, surrounded by a storm-swept ring of books. The maids say that it's escapism.
Is it?

Lucia Rowena Argall

Lucia sometimes can be seen as freshly baked bread: warm, plump, delicious, and perhaps, more importantly-- filling, without any unnecessary fluff. Though her physique make her look soft and demure, Lucia is, at heart, a down-to-earth girl, with a penchant for singing and the violin. She works in her mother's bakery and learned discipline and hard work early, and is always reliable. She and Will share a close, mutually-fulfilling friendship in which they share their annoyances they otherwise wouldn't voice. She is also Aeval's childhood friend, as Aeval's father and her mother are close friends as well, and she spends quite a number of vacation with Aeval and her father.

Artemisia Roschild

Artemisia has never been orthodox, but perhaps the decision to buy a car off Craigslist and taking an impromptu road trip across a country is edging the line a bit too far. She can be impulsive, but she generally doesn't act for the sole reason of hurting others. The ghosts she know are practically her nuclear family, and she'd go miles for them. Claire and Alton have taught her to aim her sharp mind and good intentions on the direction of lawful good, and so she tries to be honest at all costs.
But even though ghosts are her only friends, she has her ghosts, too. Being the only heiress to a fortune and a massive company isn't something that sits well with her, and it doesn't help that she abhors her parents for thrusting her to a psychiatrist upon psychiatrist without even spending a day within vicinity. She hasn't touched the pills they gave her, though she plays along and pretends she doesn't see the ghosts anymore just to fool them into lowering their guard.
But maybe things might change.

> Commercial
> 3 points of views that are primarily divergent, converging in certain points
> Story-driven game with emphasis on character relations
> 10+ endings

Things Not Seen is that project that starts you on an entire journey and doesn't leave even after five years.
Yes. Things Not Seen is a story I've redone at least three times, and to this day I haven't been satisfied. I want to churn in all I have into this-- as such, I decided to make it a commercial game. The reasons are, I want to be able to implement some features I'd need a programmer for, and I have a friend I'd like to commission to do the soundtrack to this entire thing.

However, Things Not Seen will only start once I finish Kinghearth, meaning that it will be a very, very long time before I even start on it.

[Ghost of Crux]

[ the fluffcake otomes post ]

Otome | Slice of Life | Drama
GxB | GxG

Aimée Wilkinson [name changeable] is just a girl who likes sewing, watching movies, and beta-reading her best friends' fanfictions.
What's not "just something" is her family.

Driven into anxiety with the intense fighting that happen daily within her home, Amy just. wants. peace. Her close friends, Vega and Ethan are trying their hardest to keep her afloat, but sometimes it's hard. It's not about her, here-- it's about the fact that none of her family members can be in one room without her being chipped down with anxiety, and about the fact that she's always, always certain that one day, something big will happen and it will all crash down.

She doesn't want to crash.
In an attempt to reduce the anxiety she has from her home, Amy tries to expand her social circle. Sure, it's probably going to backfire on her, but-- but well, she's been neglecting some of her schoolwork and extracurricular activities, and she probably needs to get back at that. And well... if she can be friends with someone there, that's extra, right?

Jason Abney
The most active, proactive and sociable person in theatre, Jason is always up for a chat about the extracurricular activity. Technically, Amy isn't in theatre-- but she has been helping with costumes, and Jason always knows the people he's grateful to. And he's always been a kind guy-- he lends an ear easily, and though sometimes he acts with a flourish (and sings Hamilton a lot), he's perceptive, too.

Myles Osborne
The vice-president of the class, Myles is always a quiet second-in-command, always seemingly ruling from the shadows. Some people wouldn't even talk to him about the problems they want to voice, sometimes-- he's never outright cold or anything, but it's the quietness that unnerve them sometimes. Still, he knows a lot of things that they don't tell him anyway-- but through the secretary.

Amy has always found him more approachable than the larger-than-life class president, Roy Ernest. At the very least, she can ask him about homework without feeling like people are staring at them.

Elaine Wen
They don't talk a lot, but Elaine is a neighbour girl who goes to the same school Amy does. She seems to know about the tension going on in Wilkinson's residence-- hard not to, considering how much door slamming happens-- but is hesitant to bring it up. Still, she gathers the courage one day, and offers Amy her place as someplace to go to when she feels overwhelmed.


Features

> Romantic or Friendship routes
> Love Interest routes not affecting the endings, which is about how Amy deals with her family problems
> No bad ends
> A story heavy on family problems and the importance of friendships and familial relations
> 30-50k words

[Weenily]

dang look at all these cool projects. LACKING GRACE THO-- ALTON U DIC K HOW DAR E YOU CHEAT ON CLAIRE.

*coughs* I really love the way you write your game summaries! They're interesting to read and it really feels like you put a lot of thought into your characters so I end up curious about what's going to happen to them!

I'm really interested in Lacking Grace because of Alton and Claire and I love mysteries. The Blind Eye has such a good description I love that "She's everything the nobility hates." like so mu ch and the assasin coming for her aaaA. No place for romance but....what about friendship is there any place for friendshi p. I love the concept of Passivity omg it reminds me of times when ya friend calls you because they watched a horror movie and can't pee but there's actual danger. It's definitely a cool game idea! hOPEFULLY SKYPE DOESN'T ACT ALL SHITTY LIKE HOW IT USUALLY DOES ON CALL. YOU CAN TOTES HELP PIPER ARTIE, YOU'RE A GOSHDARN LIGHTSABER MASTER. Als o omg the art for Wonderlust is gorgeous and ugh Celtic fantasy sounds so cool.

THE BIG PROJE CT POST. YOOO Artie trying to help Alton and Claire move on??? ghjksfsfhksh fuCK. I love all those genre tags uGH. You're really good at building up suspense in your descriptions I'll die playing your games. Really nice character designs and I love their descriptions omg. 3 POVs too ugh perfect for finding out how alL OF THOSE CASES ARE RELATED.

FLUFFCAKES OTOME POST... I really like how realistic that plot is? YOU CAN DO IT AMY. I BELIEVE IN YOU. ALSO I LOVE JASON ALREADY. GOOD TASTE IN MUSICALS. Myles is an interesting shadow lord and oh gosh Elaine is a sweetheart...! I also LOVE that the endings are about Amy and her fam overall. AND NO BAD ENDS YOO. A STORY THAT FOCUSES ON FAM PROBS AND THE IMPORTANCE OF FRIENDSHIP/FAMILY RELATIONS. I LOVE IT SO MUCH.

u gotta make all of these eventu ally and i will plAY all of them eventu ally

[Ghost of Crux]

When you said comment I didn't really it's on aL L

YEP. BASICALLY THAT'S THE HUGE PROBLEM WITH CLAIRE AND ALTON AHAHA

Thank you! It kinda feels like I'm writing things too vaguely but I'm glad it sounds interesting!

Lacking Grace is those things that are like. Sometimes you regret knowing. Heck-- I won't even be bothered if you guessed what happens-- it makes things worse, like discovering a broken brake in a fast train.

ACTUALLY..... IN THE BLIND EYE THEY DID BECOME CLOSE AND FALL IN LOVE. But Zerathine would choose a beneficial political marriage 10/10. EVEN THE FRIENDSHIP ENDS UP BROKEN AHAHAHA

ARE YOU KIDDING ME OFC IT WILL FREAK OUT. You're also gonna spend s o much time getting interrupted by ghosts only you can see. It's going to be choice heavy and too many wrongs will have the connection going silent and. YOU CAN'T PROCEED UNTIL YOU MANUALLY END THE CALL. Yes you abandoned her congrats.

Wonderlust is a cisswap ARAGO fanfic I was going to make into a comic but that's too much work |D
IT WILL HAVE MULTIPLE DIFFERENT CELTIC CULTURES (like Welsh and Scottish) BUT SOMEWHAT PRIMARILY IRISH.
I'm glad you like the art o v o I was contemplating doing it watercolor style ahaha

HEHEHE did u feel the pain
IM SO GLAD I feel like I just shit my descriptions sometimes.
3 POVS because like. Literally Artie and Delbert can't share the same oxygen. He literally decked her before she even saw him. So she decked him back. They're both morons. Without Lucia all three of them are dEa d.

AHAHAHAHA........ I FEEL LIKE I SHOULDNT SAY THAT ITS A VENTING OTOME. I'm going thru a turbulent fam time and I'm going nuts sO might as well vn it rite
Boys still have cooties tho.
ALSO I'm thinking that the cast should have only one or two white people, with none being the love interests. AHAHA I love Jason too I've been punching people in the beat of Right Hand Man
WELL WHEN YOU ARE FACING WAR IN YOUR HOME NO AMOUNT OF COOTIES WILL BE DISTRACTING. For the most part you'll have a choice to talk with your family members for clarity and can try to be a peacekeeper (which they'll notice), but that is emotionally draining as fuck so you need your amazing friends.

The best friends are amazing btw just. These two kids half flirting on Skype group chat while Vega and Amy basically share all the *blows kisses* and :" because boys have cooties.
I was contemplating making those two obtainable but I think it defeats the message so they're not obtainable.
You CAN get your love interest in the skype group tho it's like a rite of passage

Emphasis on eventu a ll y
I'll need outside help hAHA

[Ghost of Crux]

All right. I admit. This is a stupid reason to update this thread.
But I kinda am running on very little sleep and it's 6 am and I have to go to class at 8 and I cannot sleep now
So this is a mockup for Passivity's title screen.



I desperately need to finish NaNo because I can't wait to start on Passivity.

[Weenily]

I'M A DETAILED PERSON FIGH T ME

Ooh man that's an exciting analogy. Plus there's like 6 variations which sounds pretty cool to go through! i also rly love the image of claire, nate, and artie gossiping over tea and aggressively making alton feel like theyre vaguing about him

NOOOoOOO... ug h Zerathine you're too good to your kingdom. ALSO THEY HAVE REALLY NICE DESIGNS. Zerathine's face is so cute and she looks so squishY and Rollan defs looks starved and tired, u can totally see the difference in class.

FU CK. RIP IN PIECES PIPER. oh m y god YOU GOTTA HANG UP I... i LOVE it but also poor artie and pipes lmao. all th at suspense and u abandon her im gonna weep. I LOVE THAT TITLE SCREEN BTW. so much fish. perf way to integrate story elements into the gui. who is that in artie's pic tho-

LOL we ll VNs are the best of both worlds. NICEEE learning about different cultures is always a cool experience! yeah go for it! your watercolor art has a really nice texture to them and the water colory style definitely suits the fantasy theme. it'd defs be an interesting look to see in a vn!!

YOURE SO R00D but y es... i felt all the p ain...
//PAT/ NAH MAN I THINK YOUR DESCRIPTIONS ARE PRETTY GOOD. like, i dunno but from just reading your descriptions i feel like you're good at writing! JFC. THANK YOU LUCIA FOR BEING THAT MOM FRIEND WHO PREVENTS EVERYONE FROM DYIGN.

PL S. family problems suuuck i hope things can get better for u! aND ALSO LOL TRU. best way to vent is to make charas and stories based on them //looks at all me OCs

YES. I TOTALLY BACK YOU UP ON THAT IDEA. More spotlight on the POC. LOL sounds like a fun concept for a rhythm game. I've b een annoying everyone i know with You'll Be Back
TRUuu. cooties are just more str e ss. OOH, INTERESTING. I love that they noticeee. YAAAA BEST FRIENDS ARE THE GREATEST KIND OF PEOPLE

y esss that sounds so amazinG. all the gross pick-up lines and fuccboi jokes between friends. weird matching skype na mes. BOYS R GROSS.
OOOH. OH NOOO THAT SOUNDS ADORABLE.

//PAT/

[Ghost of Crux]

SURE GAILE SURE

The variations are mostly like if Alton goes to actually investigate the reason for the divorce, there are several scenes that would happen in the end. For the most part the endings lead to the same thing, but in different ways. So for the best kind ACTUALLY TALK TO YOUR NIGHTMARES IN LAWS
They actually do do that-- this is the main canon for my ocs (they're all dead and are serving several decades maintaining the worlds' balances) and basically thatS what claire's entire department does
everyone salts on alton

I FIGURED THAT IN A WORLD WHERE YOU ARE RICH FOR BEING ABLE TO EAT SHE HAS TO BE PLUMP AND CUTE
i love them sorry

ITS A DICK MOVE AND I AM SO PROUD OK
IT'S NOT ALL BAD ENDS BUT YOU GOTTA BE CAREFUL AF
so much fish
thanks will
THE ONES IN THE PIC IS ARTIE'S SKETCH OF ALTON AND CLAIRE

rip me when I have to change the sprites
BU T AT THE SAME TIME. WATERCOLORS.

THANKS that's a bit of a leap but tha nsk
LUCIA IS THE GREATEST SHE'S THE ONLY REASON THEY'RE ALL NOT KILLING EACH OTHER. also artie might need to consider to befriend her bc otherwise it might be a problem

THANKS and also yeP. lookit me. iM WORKING THRU MY PROBLEMS WITH SHITTY RELATIONSHIPS W/ CLAIRE AND ALTON ISN'T THAT GOOD I DON'T NEED A PSYCHIATRIST

G O D YOU KNOW WHAT. DDR, BUT GUNS AND SHIPS. RIP FEET. MUST KEEP UP WITH LAFAYETTE'S RAPPING. GOOD GOD RIP US ALL
also Myles is totally a closet ficcer tbh......... I'm laughing bc so many ficcer but that scary dude who is silent almost all the time has secretly been writing fics in another language for kicks

MATCHING WEIRD STATUSSES. CARDS AGAINST HUMANITY GAMES. no seriously custom cards against humanity is the greatest thing to ever happen i have matches monthly for the sheer amazing crack it gets me
basically vega, ethan and amy are insane when on skype
it's like...... quiet in the streets cah is the shit or something
And your new friend/xfriend will have to survive that............... rip

[Ghost of Crux]

s w e a t s
My ADD and procrastination syndrome is showing

I ended up working a bit on Wonderlust after getting really annoying inspiration to plan it. It's a 4 act thing, will be probably around 40k-50k maybe. I do tend to write a lot less than I thought I do, though, so it might clock in at lower 30's. Still.
It's somewhat of a fanfic, if you take the characters, cisswap them, throw them into a new setting and completely redo their histories and thus their personalities... Yeah.

In any case, I drew some stuffs for it:


Saerlaith (Sile) in some of the variations. So far I've given her three different hairstyles (mostly to be used in the third and fourth act) and two different clothing, though she definitely will have like... ten. The lineart might change color later.

Osla Miller, aka the only love interest you can get. This is a fanfic in disguise, dangit, I have my OTPs and I am the few who can't multiship. Osla stole my heart and ran away with it but I have no regrets

I'll only announce and thread the thing once I finish another game and reach 10k in script-- meaning either the end of the month when NaNo ends, or after Many a Weary Foot is finished, since I just realised that Of All There Is requires loooooads of arts. Wonderlust will have tons of arts, too. I might end up needing help in some parts, but honestly, the workload might be too much for a free game for me to comfortably ask for help.

Also, I have to say-- this is the first time I've ever actually known what music I want in the scenes. Usually I just throw the music-less demo at my friend and she scours incompetech for something that might fit, but here I am, in the first scene, adding three pieces at once. im not crying

In any case, I gotta rush back to NaNo so back to pretending I'm not useless

[Ghost of Crux]

Second post updated with more decent colored portraits. I've been planning out Things Not Seen in more details, too, though not to the point of scripting it yet. So far it seems like it will be divided into four parts, though the game itself will only show division in terms of days. Most likely will not be really worked on until later this year. Heck, if I can control myself, this should not even be started on until at least next year. But I'm weak.

I'm also working on the planning of Sewing It Back Together, but tbh I think I'll need some help with my own family problems too at this point lmao
It's kinda hard to write it but it gotta be done.
I'm trying to mostly restrict myself to writing because I really should be doing more for NaNoRenO but as for now IRL situation is putting too much stress on me to do what I'm supposed to do. So yeah.

[Ghost of Crux]

Picked up Things Not Seen for a bit; I've been talking about it with a friend Ksen, whom I'll be asking to make the music of it later basically. It inspired me to work with it a bit, and so I resketched this screen for possibly the fifth time in my life:



After working on Kinghearth's script, I just realised that the sheer variations and routes Things Not Seen will have will mean that it might get to 150k words. Scary. The post also now has a new temporary title; IMHO it looks a bit tacky right now but I'll clean that up someday. I'm writing the script bit by bit but since my Camp NaNoWriMo project is Kinghearth, I obviously prioritize Kinghearth. I'm planning the script for the demo, though, which will have the first 2 days on all three character povs.