Lemma Soft Forums

Just here to let you know


I'll play it definitely :>


*Moral Support* (it counts as helping right?):>

Zanahoria wrote:Oh wow. I really, really love your art. I'm glad you're not changing it to make it look more "commercial". There's something incredibly charming about your art, it's beautiful.
I'm really looking forward to this game, it sounds like a dream!!

Thank you so much! Comments like this mean the world to me.

fluffycurry wrote:*Moral Support* (it counts as helping right?):>

It absolutely counts! It always makes me happy to know that people are actually interested in playing this game (and that I'm not just doing all this work for nothing...or to feed my own ego). Thank you!

Here's a character design for Emma and Frederick's mother. I'm not entirely decided on her personality yet. I think I'm getting better at this drawing thing though, especially the hands (although they are still too small).

In case anyone is curious as to why her back is so weird, it's actually because of the style of Victorian corsets she grew up with, which were notorious for causing an s-curve spinal column, similar to scoliosis. This misaligned spine was actually considered attractive. The Edwardian corset, which came later (and is what the younger women have in the game), was still quite painful to wear, but caused few spinal deformities.

Edit: Okay, I added a design of their father also. I don't really like his head/face, but I like the clothing. (I usually don't like drawing menswear, so I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out.) He's definitely the strict, domineering father and a strong believer in class hierarchy/the preservation of aristocratic purity. It almost pains him physically to have his son marry a wealthy bourgeois girl (Lucy) for money, because it dilutes their bloodline. (Therefore, I will probably make the mother more sympathetic to your relationship with her son.)

Love it!

just here for moral support. this project looks so interesting. Im glad you choose the character to be older.

Your art is also very good. its very original to the art that is usually used in renpy games. I hope that when you make this game is goes very well for you and that there are no problems.

victorita9 wrote: Your art is also very good. its very original to the art that is usually used in renpy games. I hope that when you make this game is goes very well for you and that there are no problems.

I'd be ready to bet money, on this. I might be a bit biased, because I fell for the art right away, but I'm also optimistic the rest of the game will be just as good!

Nice! Your art is getting even better every day!

The amount of detail and research you're putting into this VN is amazing!! I'm not a girl but I'm definitely going to play this ! And I really love the detail you put into your art! I'm looking forward to seeing the finished product !

I really love your art it's beautiful.
I'm really looking forward to this game (^w^)

All right, I guess I'm a little overdue for an update...(And I'm still recovering from the shock of the realization that I have final exams next week, so I'll be taking a little time off. )

First of all, thank you all so much for your belief in me. I wouldn't be able to do this without your support. Some of you are amazing artists (yes, I've seen some of your work while browsing through these forums) and truly feel humbled by your compliments. And I've been browsing through some of the projects you guys having been working on, and they look amazing. I love how helpful and encouraging this community is. (Okay, okay, enough with the mushy stuff.)

So...art update: I have almost all the characters designed, and the rest I will draw as I need to as I get further along in scripting the game. I still need to work on expression for all of them, and the side images...But I've mostly been working on the CGs. I finished the last CG for the butler's good end, and it needs some minor fixes, but overall it turned out better than expected. I'm also working on Frederick's first CG (I'm planning four for each of them, so I don't overburden myself). It includes an image of his desk, and because he's an aviator/engineer, it's fun drawing all his random equipment and organized chaos, although most of it is just to look cool and is actually completely historically inaccurate.

Writing update: I've more or less switched gears from art to writing, but I'm more writing the scenes as they come to me, rather than following a linear format. So far, I have the main story arch plotted out, and which scenes I will need to write, but I still need to incorporate the branching menus for the different endings. But just today, I wrote a scene that I'm really happy with, so I'm in a good mood at present and optimistic about my pacing. (But the final product will need a lot of revision, as I tend to be somewhat verbose, if you haven't already noticed.) I guess the most difficult part is writing with contemporaneously accurate language, while still keeping it understandable to nonnative English speakers, and avoiding having it sound stilted/awkward. Dialogue has always been my weak point in writing...hopefully this experience will improve that skill.

Anyway, since I have no art to show you, I've attached a picture of my main menu...don't worry, it's just a doodly placeholder image for now, and I'm aware it has a lot of issues at present (no lips! ). (Actually, I think this is the first digital drawing I ever made--long before any of the character sprites or CGs!) At any rate, I will work on drawing a better image to replace the placeholder at some point. I was just trying to get a feel for how I should lay things out in the main menu, i.e. drawing around buttons and text. Obviously I did not leave enough room for the title at the top, or otherwise positioned it poorly. xD...That brings me to another point--like the image, "The Lady's Maid" is just a placeholder (more like a job description) that hasn't even reached the status of tentative title; I'm just uncreative.

History lesson: every adult female of high enough social standing would have a "lady's maid," whose sole job it was to dress her mistress and comb her hair, provide company, etc. and she reported directly to her mistress, rather than the housemaid. She was often mistrusted by the other maids for her close relationship with the mistress, and she had access to a more luxurious lifestyle; however, she was constantly at the lady's beck and call. Ladies preferred very young lady's maids (18-25 was ideal), but the heroine will be an exception for certain reasons...

Wow! This is the first time I see a kiss in the main menu. And I adore those buttons! Keep up the good work!

azureXtwilight wrote:Wow! This is the first time I see a kiss in the main menu. And I adore those buttons! Keep up the good work!

Yeah, I was thinking it might be a little weird, especially since I don't even have a context for this scene in the game...and I haven't drawn or even planned to draw any other kisses so far. I hadn't really thought about the fact that you rarely see kisses on main menus of games; for some reason, I was thinking of romance novel covers, which include everything but intercourse itself sometimes. xD But Frederick is the canon romance, so it doesn't bother me that much to include the kiss. (I mean, the player knows before he/she even starts the game that there's going to be a kiss: it is a romance game after all, so it's not really a spoiler.) I'll change the scene if it bothers others, though. Thanks for your continued encouragement, and I'm glad you like the buttons!

Ah, it doesn't really bother me. It's just I've never seen one. Maybe there's a lot in japanese renai games? But it's already nice.

And is the title fixed?

azureXtwilight wrote:Ah, it doesn't really bother me. It's just I've never seen one. Maybe there's a lot in japanese renai games?

Japanese people don't kiss! :3 Seriously though, kissing is associated with having sex, so a hug is more common. *japan-o-nerd*

I was just trying to get a feel for how I should lay things out in the main menu, i.e. drawing around buttons and text. Obviously I did not leave enough room for the title at the top, or otherwise positioned it poorly. xD...That brings me to another point--like the image, "The Lady's Maid" is just a placeholder (more like a job description) that hasn't even reached the status of tentative title; I'm just uncreative.

First of all: I like the placeholder title. =P It only clashes with the graphic because I'm expecting to see "The Lady" somewhere.

Secondly: I'd like to offer my graphic services if you need someone to help code/design your interface. It's the least I can do ...

Thirdly: On the note of the kissing being a spoiler, consider the kiss a reward for the player, so giving the reward straight-up might be why it's unusual. But, as a player, I love being spoiled. So more kissy CGs, plzkthx.

Really? I don't know!
But like you, I LOVE being spoiled!

Aleema wrote:Japanese people don't kiss! :3 Seriously though, kissing is associated with having sex, so a hug is more common. *japan-o-nerd*

This is true of Bollywood movies too (which my parents watch all the time--the virtues of being a second-generation immigrant). Until very recently, there was no kissing/sex/anything in mainstream media, and it's still somewhat taboo. Like, one second you will see a guy and a girl singing and dancing in a field, then a rose will bloom or something (subtle hint) and in the next scene, the girl will be pregnant. What the hell?! Apparently a lot of Bollywood actors also have no-kiss contracts.

Aleema wrote:First of all: I like the placeholder title. =P It only clashes with the graphic because I'm expecting to see "The Lady" somewhere.

I see. It kind of suggests that the heroine identifies with her job, but of course her direct employer is not in the image at all. Part of the game is about the protagonist building her own self-esteem and identifying herself as something more than just a maid, a job that seems to have consumed her life. I will think about what you said. I could just stick the cast of (main) characters on the main page. (Or at least both the "winnable" guys.)

Aleema wrote:Secondly: I'd like to offer my graphic services if you need someone to help code/design your interface. It's the least I can do ...

:O That would be awesome! I would be completely in your debt! I'm no good at designing this sort of thing, and I definitely don't have the programming skills to change anything. *dies of n00bness* I will PM you later today.

Aleema wrote:Thirdly: On the note of the kissing being a spoiler, consider the kiss a reward for the player, so giving the reward straight-up might be why it's unusual. But, as a player, I love being spoiled. So more kissy CGs, plzkthx.

This is true, what you said about the kiss being a reward. I'll have kiss scenes within the game too, so hopefully at that point you will feel more like you earned it. I hadn't planned this out very well to begin with, so I might just remove the kiss from the title page and throw in a more generic image...also because the other male lead got shafted. xD

azureXtwilight wrote:And is the title fixed?

Nope. Just temporary. I just thought it would be weird to write "Untitled" as the title on the main page, so I changed it.

You guys are too cute. And don't worry, I fully intend to spoil you guys with the best of my artistic abilities (which are admittedly limited). Thanks for your suggestions.