[WIP] The Duke's Daughter

[dstarsboy]

Story Summary


Programming/Music: dstarsboy
Story/Writer: number473
Sprite/Gallery Artist: Hime

FAQ:
What type of story will this be?
This is an interactive dating simulation.

How long with this story be?
It will be relatively short to medium in length. Total playing time will be under an hour.

How many endings will this story have?
Four.

How many characters are there?
8 thus far. Profiles coming as soon as the sprites are complete.

Programming: 10%
Music: 0%
Script: 10%
Sprite Art: 10%
Gallery Art: 0%
Backgrounds: 100%

Here are some mockups/screenshots from the game thus far:
Please note: We have no artist yet, so I'm just using place holder art for most of the scenes until we get one. Also, the names will likely change as well.

[IonicMomo]

Squee! I love historical fiction/romances. I like that you're taking the social context into account to (i.e. convincing the duke to accept the marriage) in addition to the romance. I expect it will add a lot of depth to the story. I also really like the idea of a castle setting and all the intrigue and courtship that goes on behind closed doors...I'm not sure how much story there is in a dating simulation, or how much your writer is willing to delve into all that, but there is a lot of potential in the plot summary. Unfortunately, I'm not an artist, so I don't really have anything to offer besides my support and excitement. (But whoever accepts the position will have fun drawing all the period costumes!) Good luck!

Edit: Interesting idea, designing the game for the iPad. I don't actually own any Apple products, but I assume there is quite a large potential audience for these kinds of apps.

[LVUER]

Is it realistic history or fantasy medieval? If the latter, I'm interested doing the art, since I like doing the fantasy medieval dress, especially involving knights (esp if he's in his shining armor). This, of course, if you don't mind with my rather cute and loli drawing style...

[dstarsboy]

Interesting idea, designing the game for the iPad. I don't actually own any Apple products, but I assume there is quite a large potential audience for these kinds of apps.

Thanks for the support, Ionic! Always appreciated. As for the iPad, it's not by choice really, I haven't learned Ren'Py yet, the only thing I know how to program games for is the iPhone/iPad, so it's not that I "want" to do it for the iPad, it's that its all I know. I guess I do want to get VNs out there on more platforms for exposure too. On the bright side, the iPad's screen dimensions are 1024x768x32 so the art can be easily portable to a Ren'Py version without much work.

LVUER! I absolutely adore your work. The concept is actually more "historical" than "fantasy", but there should still be some knight in shining armor stuff going on. My only concern is that our backgrounds are CG/3D so I'm not sure how that will play with such cute artwork like yours (unless you want to draw new backgrounds, lol). I'd love to give it a try though! I'll PM you some details and see if you're still interested.

[number473]

(Writer for the project here)

Squee! I love historical fiction/romances. I like that you're taking the social context into account to (i.e. convincing the duke to accept the marriage) in addition to the romance. I expect it will add a lot of depth to the story. I also really like the idea of a castle setting and all the intrigue and courtship that goes on behind closed doors...I'm not sure how much story there is in a dating simulation, or how much your writer is willing to delve into all that, but there is a lot of potential in the plot summary.

The focus of the story will be on interacting with the various characters that inhabit the castle. Furthermore, gaining the approval (or disapproval) of some characters may influence other characters' opinions of you, since they are all related, after all. The story is there to facilitate this, and to give you chances to prove yourself a worthy suitor.

[dstarsboy]

Updated the op.

We've decided to make this a ren'py game to start with, while simultaneously working on an iPad release. So the good news is that it'll be available on all formats from the beginning.

Unfortunately, LVUER could not be secured as an artist, so the position is still open to anyone who's interested.

[Nessiah]

I'm just wondering, how much artwork do you think you guys will need? I'm kinda curious

[number473]

At the moment there are 7 characters that need sprites, and then some Event CGs. Number of characters could increase by 1 or 2, possibly.

Edit: I miscounted, it's 8 characters. 2-3 of them are male, though, and would probably only need a few expressions.

[dstarsboy]

I've been messing around with Ren'Py for the last few days and wow, I have to admit that Py'Tom has done an incredible job making an engine that's so easy to get into yet very powerful and flexible at the same time. I'm definitely a big fan!

Just for fun and interest sake, here's a quick screenshot of the "action sequence" idea we had for fight scenes in the game. Essentially, the image on the left will flip every couple of seconds and become a different random image. Once it flips, the player must tap the corresponding image on the right before it flips again. Tapping on the wrong one (or not at all) scores a hit for the bandit, tapping on the right one scores a hit for the player. It's kinda goofy, but was just a concept that we were contemplating to give the game some variation and a better outcome to any fights or duels.

In the end, we've decided to not include any "action sequence" mini-game in the currently planned release of the game. We've dropped this feature in the interest of time and we didn't want to risk drawing attention from the story.

FYI: We're still looking for an artist to partner up with on this project. Number473 is making excellent progress on a very compelling story and I'm getting my head wrapped around Ren'Py, so we're moving full steam ahead and I think you'll find us fun to work with.

[IonicMomo]

This is looking pretty sweet. I love the letter exchange idea! The minigame seems cute and amusing, and a relief for someone those of us that aren't very good at battle sequences. Actually, drawn-out, button-pushing madness is, for me, as someone that plays for the story rather than the action, probably the one of the biggest turn-offs in games. Although I know that others really enjoy those minigames, I'm glad y'all are exploring alternatives. (Also, I know that the text is just placeholder text, but it still made me laugh out loud. "Total buzz-kill, Lucia. Total buzz-kill." I commend you guys for making even the placeholders entertaining. )

[dstarsboy]

Thanks for the feedback on the mini-game, Ionic, it's always good to know if we're on the right track or not. I think we made the right decision leaving it out, especially for people like you who like the story part the best. The letter exchange was Numbers' idea and it definitely gives the story another dimension. I'm glad you're having a laugh at our mockups, heh.

Well, it doesn't look too promising on the artist front. Can't even seem to get anyone on board from Deviant Art either. It looks like I'm going to have to commission my friend for this project, maybe, but that will be expensive. I'm hoping we'll get some good bites this weekend. *crosses fingers*

Here's the working versions of the other customized screens. Those Ren'Py tutorials are incredible!

Don't worry, I'm definitely done flooding this thread with screenshots for a while. LOL.

[Headache]

Oh My God. The GUI design is awesome! I'm watching this. =D

[dstarsboy]

Thanks, Headache! We definitely wouldn't have been able to do it without the ren'py tutorials, thank God for those!

I think we may have finally found an artist, so I'm removing the "need artist" label for now. We'll post a name once it's been confirmed.

Edit: Confirmed! Welcome aboard Hime!

[Lunethex]

You should get a website or some sort of blog dedicated to this.

[dstarsboy]

That's a good idea, Lunethex, we'll definitely consider that.

Just a quick update for everyone, Hime's making excellent progress on the character designs and number473 is well into his script.

Progress:
The game contains 386 screens of dialogue.
These screens contain a total of 4241 words,
for an average of 11.0 words per screen.
The game contains 3 menus.