Clearwater Crossing [Otome] (Open Dev)

[WickedRaccoon]

*_* those guys..your art seems to be improving more and more.now i can't wait for this game to be released.good luck!! ^^

[Aedin]

Fall 1[SUN]-Be a pervert or animal hater.
Fall 4[WED]-Have fantasies if you're a peeping tom.

My curiosity is killing me.
Also, Kristian's baby ponytail is super adorable and highly attractive. Hnnng.

[michi 18]

This looks pretty interesting

[KittyKatStar]

The story takes place over a year. There are four seasons(Fall, Winter, Spring and Summer) in game which have 15 days each in them. So in total the game will span 60 days. In terms of coding I'm on day 11 of Fall, give or take a few days I left blank for now. The game pretty much jumps into play on Fall 1 but I wonder if you guys think a slower introduction to everything would be better?

What you got pacing wise seems to be great so far. I always think 3ish events per week are good enough to keep the player interested without being worried about LONG stretches of nothing going on. Worse case if the introduction is too rushed, you can always add a few more free days to help the player absorb the newly added game mechanics. ^^ I'm sure when the beta is released you'll definitely get some pacing suggestions.

Also love the new art, and Kristian's ponytail. <3

[Kingv]

*_* those guys..your art seems to be improving more and more.now i can't wait for this game to be released.good luck!! ^^

Thank you so much! It's true that things are starting to look better as I work on the game more. It's one of the reasons I'm hesitant to start some of the sprites. I worry that I'll want to redo them in a few months.

Fall 1[SUN]-Be a pervert or animal hater.
Fall 4[WED]-Have fantasies if you're a peeping tom.

My curiosity is killing me.
Also, Kristian's baby ponytail is super adorable and highly attractive. Hnnng.

Well I'm glad I peaked your interest.It'll make more sense when playing the game. There must be something about his little ponytail that keeps us ladies interested lol!

This looks pretty interesting

Thanks, hope you stick around for future updates.

The story takes place over a year. There are four seasons(Fall, Winter, Spring and Summer) in game which have 15 days each in them. So in total the game will span 60 days. In terms of coding I'm on day 11 of Fall, give or take a few days I left blank for now. The game pretty much jumps into play on Fall 1 but I wonder if you guys think a slower introduction to everything would be better?

What you got pacing wise seems to be great so far. I always think 3ish events per week are good enough to keep the player interested without being worried about LONG stretches of nothing going on. Worse case if the introduction is too rushed, you can always add a few more free days to help the player absorb the newly added game mechanics. ^^ I'm sure when the beta is released you'll definitely get some pacing suggestions.

Also love the new art, and Kristian's ponytail. <3

Ok, thanks for the input. I think it works well for the time being and will adjust things accordingly once a demo is released and I get more feedback. So far there are two event that happen every week and you just have to be at a certain place to trigger them. So adding one more as well as a few sub events would break up the monotony for adventurous players.

I'm going to have to make a fan club for Kristian's ponytail. It's inevitable. ^^

Just wanted to post another update for everyone. Thanks to the wonderful Arowana I now have a working GUI in place for the game! It all looks great and really makes me feel like I'm making an actual game. I've also been making progress with background and CGs. Here's a little sneak peak at some of the finished ones that I like. I've been going back and cleaning things up in the script so some of the menus were deleted. I want to implement a sort of day planner where you can choose which activities to do during the the daytime, afternoon and night. I originally wanted to use the Date Sim Engine but it's not as flexible as I'd like only because you have to pick all of your activities for the day or week at once. Each of the menus for my version of the day planner has a sub menu or two attached. Got to Town takes you to the world map where you can choose locations to visit that are away from home. Stay Home and Relax lets you explore Abby's house and the surrounding areas. Work on Increasing skills is pretty self explanatory I think. While I'd Rather Go Back to Bed advances the day to its next time period just in case you don't want to do anything. You can keep clicking this button to skip to the next day. I've also added a stamina system that advances the day as your bar is depleted. When it hits zero you automatically go to bed and wake up the next day. So far the only events that deplete stamina are increasing skills and working. So you can do a fair amount of talking and exploring without worrying you're using up too much energy and will end the day early.

Code: Select all

The game contains 538 screens of dialogue.
These screens contain a total of 9,928 words,
for an average of 18.5 words per screen.
The game contains 11 menus.

[Blane Doyle]

I have to say, I really do like the UI for this game so far. It is simple and nice to look at, but it doesn't seem too simple to me.
(The stamina bar looks awkward against the rest of the UI, but I am guessing you are still tweaking it a bit?)

[KittyKatStar]

Eeee, really love the art examples, and the GUI so far~ (Always a sucker for a lovely rainy-day CG. <3 )

[Kingv]

I have to say, I really do like the UI for this game so far. It is simple and nice to look at, but it doesn't seem too simple to me.
(The stamina bar looks awkward against the rest of the UI, but I am guessing you are still tweaking it a bit?)

Thank you very much. I like it too. I've changed up the GUI a few times through the game process and I'm finally pleased with how the design looks now. I'm still looking up ways to customize the stamina bar. Eventually it'll fit in with the rest of the GUI but it's visible for now because I was testing variables and needed to make sure the stamina bar was acting correctly.

Eeee, really love the art examples, and the GUI so far~ (Always a sucker for a lovely rainy-day CG. <3 )

Thanks! I like scenes with different types of weather but rainy ones are always fun. It's just something about the rain that adds a little bit more emotion to things.

I worked a little bit on sprites last week. One I'm having some trouble finalizing design wise right now is Orion.

He's a lifeguard and part of his story arc is him cutting his hair which is pretty long when you first encounter him.

So far I'm leaning towards going from L2 to S1. But then again I like L3 to S2 and L3 to S1. Does anyone else have any preferable combos?

I was also thinking of adjusting the sprite shading style a bit. I've been going with cell shading primarily but after doing some backgrounds I've been adding in more soft shading. Which one works best? I've used Abbys' mom as a test subject where you can compare how both look. Time wise soft shading only takes a few more minutes to do so that's not much of a deal breaker. Since there's no time frame for when the game will be done I can do whatever looks best.

And I'm also in the process of changing Giovannis' sprite completely. I have so many young people in the game I thought it would be fun to have at least one older guy added in. So instead of being 20 something he'd be late 30s or early 40s for a little variety. But then would I still keep him as a persuadable guy or make him another background character? Decisions, decisions...

[KittyKatStar]

I admit, it's hard to pick between both styles of the mother. I loved how the pink shirt is more vibrant on the right (pink's my fav color haha) but the simple shading on the left is pleasing too. >.< They're both great/well done.

And Giovanni being older sounds great - especially given his personality and position. He seems like an experienced person and knows what he wants. Mid 30's perhaps...?

For Orion, love all hairstyles tbh so I'd never be disappointed with any combo. But if you twisted my arm I'd probably say L3->S2. Really love the braided hair, and when it's cut it's not too similar to Kristian's.

(Just my 2 cents ^^; )

[Kingv]

I admit, it's hard to pick between both styles of the mother. I loved how the pink shirt is more vibrant on the right (pink's my fav color haha) but the simple shading on the left is pleasing too. >.< They're both great/well done.

And Giovanni being older sounds great - especially given his personality and position. He seems like an experienced person and knows what he wants. Mid 30's perhaps...?

For Orion, love all hairstyles tbh so I'd never be disappointed with any combo. But if you twisted my arm I'd probably say L3->S2. Really love the braided hair, and when it's cut it's not too similar to Kristian's.

(Just my 2 cents ^^; )

I really appreciate your feedback! I'm having a tough time deciding between the two. I do agree that the soft shading tends to make the sprite colors more vibrant. But I like the clean look of the cell shade. I think I'm going to have to put both versions of the sprite with some of the backgrounds to see how they look in action.

I think mid 30s is a good age range for Giovanni. He's still young but has moved up pretty fast in his career to become an executive. I'll probably keep his age to about 35 so he's a little older than the MC but not too old. I'm sorely tempted to put just a smidgen of grey at his temples when I rework his hair. Plus romancing an older gentleman is always fun.

Now that I look at it, S1 is pretty similar to Kristians' hair style. I think it's the bang that's throwing me off. But I do have an affinity for braids. It's too bad Orion won't have his braid for long in the game but it has to be sacrificed for the sake of his route. T_T

There's still time to decide what to do so if anyone else has any opinions I'd love to hear them.

[inhalance]

Wow, the art and UI are really great! I really like the character designs as well. As I keep scrolling through the thread, everything just seems to be getting a lot cooler and better ^^ I'll be looking forward to the release! Keep up the good work, and good luck

[WickedRaccoon]

even though i'm a huge sucker for soft shading and vibrant colors,i'd say to keep the cell shading.idk,it seems more fitting with the whole game.but that's just my opinion,you're the artist,so it's your choice for giovanni,late 30's and keep him as a pursuable.and for orion,L3->S2 ^^

[Blane Doyle]

Personally I think the shading on the right looks more unique and uniform, but the left is nice too. As for Giovani, I am fine with both options, considering how attractive guys like Johnny Deep are to make and they're definitely not in their 30s anymore. (Knowing me, if he acted young enough and was physically well enough I would play a game with a 50 year old guy, so I don't think I am the best person to ask. Age and age difference isn't much of a thing for me, baring circumstances.)

As for Mr. Hot-Damn here... Personally, I like S1. I'm actually a sucker for what he has going on there.
Then again, goatees are also always sexy. Between L3 and S2 I think I lean toward S2 just because of the way the bangs fall.

I also have to say it is amazing how different L1 looks from ALL of the others. The hair color makes him look much younger.

[Kingv]

Wow, the art and UI are really great! I really like the character designs as well. As I keep scrolling through the thread, everything just seems to be getting a lot cooler and better ^^ I'll be looking forward to the release! Keep up the good work, and good luck

Thanks! I look forward to hearing more from you as development continues.

even though i'm a huge sucker for soft shading and vibrant colors,i'd say to keep the cell shading.idk,it seems more fitting with the whole game.but that's just my opinion,you're the artist,so it's your choice for giovanni,late 30's and keep him as a pursuable.and for orion,L3->S2 ^^

Thanks for the input. It's alot to think about so I'm still mulling over what to do. I think I will keep Gio as a pursuable guy which would bring the grand total to four. Not too many I think. I can always adjust events and routs if I feel like it's too much.

Personally I think the shading on the right looks more unique and uniform, but the left is nice too. As for Giovani, I am fine with both options, considering how attractive guys like Johnny Deep are to make and they're definitely not in their 30s anymore. (Knowing me, if he acted young enough and was physically well enough I would play a game with a 50 year old guy, so I don't think I am the best person to ask. Age and age difference isn't much of a thing for me, baring circumstances.)

As for Mr. Hot-Damn here... Personally, I like S1. I'm actually a sucker for what he has going on there.
Then again, goatees are also always sexy. Between L3 and S2 I think I lean toward S2 just because of the way the bangs fall.

I also have to say it is amazing how different L1 looks from ALL of the others. The hair color makes him look much younger.

Thanks for your opinions, it's really helping me to sort through my options. It's one of the main reasons I went for an open development style. You guys are super helpful!

I'm glad everyone is supportive of me aging Gio up some. He will definitely be young at heart. Plus going after an older guy can be fun, especially if it's one of the harder routes.

I think I want to try combining S1 and S2 to see what it looks like. I like the short spikiness of S1 and I'm curious as to how it would look mixed in with the bang and braids from S2...Either way the goatee is staying. ^^
L1 was the first design for his hair I did. I'm still trying out some things color wise for his hair and haven't quite chosen one I'm happy with. My script originally had him as a blond but Kristian ended up being one so I felt the need to diversify Orion so I'm playing with a darker pallet for him.

[KittyKatStar]

I like the combining idea (yesss the goatee is staying). Can't wait to see the final result for Mr. Hot-Damn here. ^_^

Psst, Orion's full name should be Orion Hot-Damn. XD