Heartful Memory [Friendship, Slice-Of-Life]

[TsukiShima]

Update 11/19/15 :This project is undergoing a huge make-over and improvements, and I as the developer, apologize for the 2 years delay !

All previous helps will still be used !

Since the artist and the musician for this project are willing to continue on this journey, a demo is expected to be released on February. Please look forward !

Thank you for the support !

Meanwhile, take a little look at the WIP of the cast makeovers!





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ALERT!! : This is still a developing game, so changes and updates are probably common. Also, prepare for potential spoilers.

STORY

"I wish time would turn around."

Akio and Masato are two best friends who sticks together, while the two seemed to be very different, they care for each other. And Masato knows about Akio's little secret; his love in first-sight. He needs to help the shy Akio to confess his love the girl, but it is not that easy for the three of them.

In the city, Serene lives a life as a delinquent. He has friends, but none of them knows who he truly is. Even in class, his schedule was always sleeping, and hanging around. But one day, he had a dream, what is it, he doesn't remember. But that dream kept coming back, and it was bothering him. He sees only one person that can help him, Kai, the intelligent quiet student in class.

What are the ties that connect them all?

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CHARACTERS :

Serene (name changeable)

- The main character
- A delinquent that wish for an easy-going life
- He has few friends, but none that truly understands him
- Depends on your choice, he'll be friend with Kai
- Main problem: What is this dream that bothers him? What is it that he is unsatisfied with?

Kai

- Depending on your choice, he'll be Serene's companion.
- A quiet, yet friendly person.
- He is an indoor person, different from Serene.
- The brain of the class.
- Main problem: He has a big secret. Can you find out?

Akio

- The best friend of Masato.
- A shy, friendly and cute person, easy to tease.
- Has a crush on the yellow-ribbon girl
- Keeps his emotional feelings to himself, or lets it out to Masato.
- Main problem: He keeps his feelings too deeply. How to change that?

Masato

- The best friend of Akio
- The popular, cool looking, and attention of the class.
- Helps Akio to try and be-friend with the yellow-ribbon girl.
- Unaware of his own feelings.
- Main problem: How to express himself correctly?

Yellow-ribbon Girl (YR Girl)

- Akio's love in first-sight.
- Goes to different school from Akio and Masato.
- A pretty girl, and from Akio's interpretation, a kind and friendly girl too.
- Main problem: Not a lot known about this girl. How to get to know her then?

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SETTINGS

The first story takes place in a fictional village called Calminity Village (uhh, I'm not sure with the name), where Akio, Masato and the yellow-ribbon Girl live.

The second story takes place in a fictional modern city where Serene and Kai live and go to school.

The time of the two events are different.

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GAME FEATURES

• Type : Point-based game, Decision-making
• Genre : Friendship, Slice of Life, Romance (BXG)
• Route : 3 Routes
• Ending(s) : 3 Endings + 1 Secret Ending (I want to add one more.. but it seemed difficult)

PROGRESS

• Art : 70 % [Backgrounds, backgrounds!]
• Writing : 80 % [Editing the script to make it officially done!]
• Coding : 40 % [Fixing errors while editing]
• Music : 50 % [ToddSmith is a wonderful composer!]
• Overall : 70 %

CREDITS

• Editor : CheeryMoya
• Coding Assistant : DragoonHP
• Music Composer : ToddSmithComposer
• Background Artist : Free source / rufiangel / HanaMori
• Artist and Original Idea : HanaMori

And more to come...


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A/N:

Hello, I decided to put my previous on-going games on-hold since I want those to be a serious VN and improve my arts first. So I present you with this.

This story was actually inspired by a manga that I've read (I won't mention it yet, it would be a huge spoiler for the game!) and I thought 'Hey, I want to make a story that could move others to tears, I wonder if it's possible?' So here's my try. I'm not sure if this story will be sad to your point-of-view, but I hope it would!

This game will probably only be handle by me (I'm not alone anymore), and some licensed-free stocks, and this is something like a test for me. I'm testing both my art skill and writing skill and see how far it can go.
(And I've requested a few help for musics, if I'm lucky, this game might have its own original ost as well)

I have a few questions, and if you're willing to answer or critique this story, please do, it's much welcome ^^
1. Which would prefer, Serene having his own personality or you determining his personality for him? (Either way, he'll turn from a jerk to a nicer person forward the game)
2. What are your expectation toward the game?
3. Seeing and reading the character's profile, who do you think will be your favourite character and why?
4. This game will be VN and point-based game, and it has a lot of choices. Are you fine with that?
5. Predict what will happen, and what is the actual thing that connects them.

Thank you so much for reading! Leave what you think about this story too!


SCREENSHOT



CONCEPT / PROMOTIONAL ART

[gekiganwing]

I was a bit confused about some of your story's details. Let me try to explain what I mean...

First, you can definitely use the label "BxG" if the main character is a guy who is trying to have a relationship with a girl. You said that Akio is a boy who "has a crush on the yellow-ribbon girl." But I'm not sure if Akio is a main character. It sounds like the actual MC is a boy named Serene. Do you intend to have more than one MC?

Second, some of your phrasing makes it sound like the guys are, or could be, more than friends. However, I may have misunderstood your intentions. So if the four guys are just friends, please say so. If there is at least one possible BxB romantic pairing, then I recommend editing your subject line to say something like "BxG and BxB."

[TsukiShima]

Hello there, and thank you for your kind comments.

There is BxG, where the MC will get to know the girls,

In this story, there are actually two girls, and you know later who to choose. And also, like stated, there are invisible connections, thus there are chances there will be times Serene will go after one of them.

And regarding the BxB, I can assure you there's none, unless that's your interpretation. Akio and Masato are just very close best friends, while Kai and Serene are different matters. That's why 'Friendship' was stated first, because in this story, I want to focus on that the most.

I don't blame you, this whole thing is confusing because you haven't experience the actual thing.

Edit: Edited some text to avoid major spoiler.

[Starshine]

1. This game looks cute and it reminds me of a manga... that i just can't seem to remember!
2. What are your expectation toward the game? Well i think the game is going to be really fun to read and the designs are really cute.
3. Seeing and reading the character's profile, who do you think will be your favourite character and why? Kai, i just love the name, so the character is cold hearted? I was kinda confused i thought he was shy... I'm not sure about his secret.... but mabey he could be gay? 4. This game will be VN and point-based game, and it has a lot of choices. Are you fine with that? I love point based games.
5. Predict what will happen, and what is the actual thing that connects them. Everything will be great as long as nobody dies What kind of music will you use? and if so will there be any voice acting?

[TsukiShima]

Ahh to be honest I'm a bit embarrassed to look at this thread, as this is still progressing, I'm imagining the worse!

Answering Starshine's question:

Haha, yes! This game is actually inspired by a manga, but I changed the story a lot and added more characters to make it playable. When the game is finish, I'll tell you which manga it was.
I guess the name could be a blow off to all as well, your description about Kai is almost correct! But... I hope I can surprise you with his secret. *winks*
I can't promise you with the last one though, since there are still more minus and plus to the story.

The music? It might be mostly music box covers or piano covers from free sources. Sadly, music is the only art I can't master. And I don't think there'll be any voice acting, because this is just a small project and I'm trying to keep it as simple as I can, focusing on the story.

Thank you for the feedback!

[TsukiShima]

Updates! (finally --")

Finally finished with the chibi ver. of the main cast, and now you can see more of their physical appearance.



This contains a bit of spoiler, but meh:

From the left, Akio, who is an albino, and is the shortest among the males. However he has the same height as the Yellow-ribbon Girl. Kai, is a half European, and is slightly taller than the two of them. Serene is tall as well, but Masato is the tallest.
Serene's main color could have been brown and black too, but he dyed his hair and wore contact lens (he is the delinquent anyway) to be different than others.
Masato and Yellow-ribbon Girl have their original colors, but the girl's brown color are much lighter actually.

I wanted the cast to be realistic somehow, and I didn't want to make a guy having blue or blonde or even white hair without a reason.

[TsukiShima]

I finally understand how to customize menus a bit, after reading at the tutorial like, forever





I'm not sure if I should customize the option's layout, because I like the default layout, and I'm still a noob in coding.
That's how far I am, atleast.

Edit: I have a problem. I'm remaking the side images for the MC, but the problem is, I feel like the older ones are much better. He looks more mature, and I feel the coloring are much better.


Comparison of the newer image (right) and the older image (left)

If anyone have any opinions or suggestions, I would like to hear them. Thank you in advance!

Edit 2: The newest sprite

[teacup]

This game looks like it will be really adorable, Hana~ The title screen and those chibis are so cute! It seems to have a really peaceful quality.
If you need any help finishing, I wouldn't mind helping as I'd love to see this get finished. ^_^
About Serene's side sprite, on the newer one, his eyes are way too close together. You should be able to fit one eye width in between them, but there's almost no space in between his eyes. You need to make his eyes smaller and more far apart, and possibly lower them (they seem to high on his face). On the older one, the proportion of the face is much better. But I think the coloring of his hair on the new one is an improvement.
At this point, I think Akio will be my favorite character~ Though Serene interests me as well, he seems really cool. I hope you decide to give him his own personality.

[zankizuna]

This is great it's been a while since I've seen BxGs..

[TsukiShima]

@Teacup, thank you so much! It encourages me have feedbacks from you. I'm trying to fix Serene's sprite, and even redrawing them since I'm really not satisfied, but if the coloring is fine, I'll stick with it then.

I do hope this game will be finish (and hopefully near December, because it's going to be Winter season there! ^^) and I'll remember to seek help from you if I'm stuck.

@zankizuna, thank you! There are a few BxG there, but maybe they don't really focus on romance.

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Updates!
I've begin doing the sprite, though I'm still unhappy about few things like their anatomy, so I might be changing it again.



I've also done with Masato's side story; this wasn't in the original plan, but I felt that this story focused about Serene, Kai, Akio and the Yellow-Ribbon Girl overall. So I decided to give him his own spotlight. He is the narrator of his own story, and it focused on his deeper feelings so you know his actual way of thinking.

Now all I need to do is focus back to the main story.

Code: Select all

Statistics:

The game contains 469 screens of dialogue.
These screens contain a total of 3,004 words,
for an average of 6.4 words per screen.
The game contains 5 menus.

Edit: Moved the sketches on the first post

[zankizuna]

Wow, Your sketches are Amazing I hope it gets done soon

[TsukiShima]

Thank you for the support, no matter how little or big it is, I still appreciate it!

I'm proud to say that I'm done with the Akio's, Masato's and the Yellow-Ribboned Girl's scene or 'past'. So now I'm beginning to start writing for the Serene's / player's and Kai's era, which to me will be the hardest since the player interaction starts here.
I hope I won't screw up by making this point-based system.

I am still unsure whether to give Serene his own personality in the beginning or make him a plain person, but then the monologue would be challenging one.

Placing spoilers tag after this because of personal opinion :

I'm still finding ways to connect all the ending. What I'm sure of is, the bad ending is the most obvious and easiest to get; just be ignorant. The good ending (YR Girl ending) is probably the easiest for the good endings, and I'm deciding that Kai's ending will be the true x best ending. Serene's ending will be secretly put into Kai's route, I guess the difference between his and Kai's ending is it would focus on himself rather than Kai, and to get his, it won't be point-based; meaning it would be on a one-choice, direct path.

That said, I want to make Akio's ending a secret ending, that can only be unlock if you get the best ending and you're in your second gameplay. And if you get this, you'll be able to get an extra episode!

I want to make that too honestly, extra episodes that is short and heart-warming, to show their live after the events.
I've done with Masato's extra, I wonder if I should put Serene's, the Girl's and Kai's.

[Blane Doyle]

Oh this looks cute. I love games with an emphasis on friendship, so this is right up my alley.

[Genesislove]

This looks great! And I agree, we need more BxG around here.

[TsukiShima]

Thank you! It's because I myself like to consider myself as a male in virtual and game, and I'm not really a romantic person.

To begin this post :



The fight between two strong males; Masato V.S. Serene!
Who would you support, I wonder?

These two characters never really interact with each other in the actual story, so I've been thinking, if they really do meet, they'll be rivals. The two of them are completely opposite; one is a respected student and one is a delinquent, and never will get along. And even honest, if it wasn't because of Serene, Masato would be the main character.

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Anyways, updates!

I've organize the main post to be more clearer and less rambling, so that it would be easy to read and follow. And my progress is going smoothly!

• Art : 30 % [ Sketching CGs and Sprites, and correcting the previous errors ]
• Writing : 40 % [ Writing the player's storyline ]
• Others : 30 % [ The menu is yet to be adjust, and the musics and bgs are still placeholders, not to mention coding ]
• Overall : 40 % [ So far, I'm satisfied ]

Code: Select all

Statistics:

The game contains 1,126 screens of dialogue.
These screens contain a total of 6,665 words,
for an average of 5.9 words per screen.
The game contains 5 menus.