Stillwater Creek[School Life][Drama][Romance][NOW COMPLETE]

[HalYac17]

Plot

Paul Jackman is a recently qualified teacher, who's been hired by the very prestigious Stillwater Creek Academy as a teacher. He's recently been dumped by his long term girlfriend, so he feels that the career, and general life change will help him get over everything. Paul will meet and befriend several students and teachers, some of whom he may even fall in love with. But no matter how much things change, Paul is still to learn one thing - no matter how hard you try to ignore it, you can never change your past...

Setting

Most of the story takes place in Stillwater Creek Academy, a very well known private school based in Canada, and the surrounding town.

Characters

Paul Jackman - The main character. Maths teacher who has been given a job at Stillwater Creek Academy.

Jennifer Walsh - Paul's (now ex) long term girlfriend.

Alison MacDonald - The head teacher at Stillwater Creek. Also teaches Chemistry. Incredibly professional on the outside, incredibly childish on the inside.

Louisa Robertson - A rather flirtatious student in Paul's class. Swims for the state.

Sean Campbell - A student who fancies himself as an alpha male. Often seen hanging around with younger students.

Victor Tait - A quieter student who doesn't like the noise and drama of the school cafeteria. Often seen hanging around with Hannah and Jack (see below).

Hannah Forsyth - Incredibly studious and commited person. Secretly enjoys her school work.

Jessica Black - Very quiet, almost suspicously so. Not really seen by others outside of class.

Carla Morrison - Always honest, but sometimes brutally so. Often speaks before thinking.

Emma Morioka - Recently moved from Japan to live in Canada and go to Stillwater Creek. Often seen with Louisa and Carla (see above).

Jack Simpson - There's always been something funny about Jack, but no one can put their finger on it. A definite odd ball.

Screenshots

Screenshot 1 - The Main Menu.
Characters (left to right) Louisa, Alison, Jennifer, Jack.

Screenshot 2 - Jennifer and Paul talk.
Taken from the Prologue.

Screenshot 3 - Alison welcomes Paul to Stillwater Creek Academy.
Taken from Chapter 1 - New Life, New Problems.

Screenshot 4 - Paul spends his lunch hour with (from left to right) Emma, Louisa and Carla.
Taken from Chapter 1 - New Life, New Problems.

Other notes

So yeah, this is my first visual novel. I would've posted about it sooner, but I only just realised this forum existed... Oh well, what can you do?

Basically, this VN will consist of 7 chapters. So far I've written and tested 6 of them, and have moved onto the last one. This may sound like I'm nearly finished, but there will actually be 4 different chapter 7s depending on your choices in Chapters 1-6, so I'm afraid I'm still a bit far away from completion. Speaking of which, there will be a grand total of 7 endings, so hopefully this will increase replayability for you guys! EDIT: Number of endings completed = 7

So yeah, I'd absolutely love to hear any feedback or anwser any questions on what you guys have on Stillwater Creek so far! (It's my first VN though so go easy on me )

And yeah, thanks very much for taking the time to read this, I hope you're looking forward to the release of Stillwater Creek as much as I'm looking forward to releasing it!

UPDATE 15/06/13

So to cut a long story short, my beta tester has gone AWOL and my Renpy is refusing to update. So if I get a proper release of SC, it's not going to be for ages (if at all). Therefore, I'd like to give you the download link to the Beta Tester pack (exported in RenPy 6.15.4.320, includes Windows .exe file and All .zip folder) just to give you guys something incase Im unable to release the fully tested thing (let it never be said I couldn't finish a Visual Novel!). Enjoy! http://www.mediafire.com/download/wz7fj ... erPack.zip

UPDATE 07/05/14

I never thought I'd be saying this, but after sucessfully updating RenPy, I've taken all your comments on board and released Stillwater Creek v1.1 in the Demos and Beta Testing thread! Feel free to have a look/play, I'm hoping going to take the comments onboard from the new thread and make v1.2 the "official" first release of Stillwater! http://lemmasoft.renai.us/forums/viewto ... 45&t=26468

UPDATE 09/06/2014

Stillwater Creek has been through testing and has now been released as a completed game! Bugs and typos have been fixed, and an epilouge has been added to each of the seven endings! Check out the completed version here - http://lemmasoft.renai.us/forums/viewto ... 11&t=26958

[gekiganwing]

Let me start on an offbeat note: I have been to Canada, and I have traveled a small amount in England. But I haven't been to Scotland just yet, and I'd really like to. I don't expect anyone will make a "Scottish setting, and proud of it!" visual novel soon, but if one were made, I would find it entertaining.

Paul Jackman is a recently qualified teacher, who's been hired by the very prestigious Stillwater Creek Academy as a teacher. He's recently been dumped by his long term girlfriend, so he feels that the career, and general life change will help him get over everything. Paul will meet and befriend several students and teachers, some of whom he may even fall in love with.

We have at least one example on this forum of a VN with a male tutor and his relationships with his younger female students. Project Nattsu is short and worksafe. There's nothing unusual about it, and I don't think it has any outstanding qualities, but I found it to be an enjoyable piece of freeware back in 2007. Outside of this forum, the indie creator Christine Love made a VN called don't take it personally, babe a couple years ago. I know it has a teacher as a protagonist, and a near-future setting. I'm pretty sure that it's not a romantic comedy. On the other hand, I read the fan translated version of Canvas 2 not too long ago, and had mixed thoughts about it. Finally, I don't know too many untranslated visual novels with teacher protagonists, but after reading what Eroge Review had to say about Harukani Aogi, Uruwashino, it made me wish that the VN had been more than just a potential candidate for translation.

So yeah, my thoughts on your project are as follows:

* Would this story get a mild rating if it were a movie or a video game? (Such as BBFC movie ratings 12 or 12A, or PEGI game rating 12.)
* Are the relationships between Paul and his students just friendships?
* Do they become couples only after a few years have passed?

I figured that it's good to ask these questions, because sexual relationships between students and teachers are a controversy magnet. Even if the student is past the age of consent when the relationship is serious, it's still a hot button issue if the teacher is a man. To quote what TVTropes currently says about teacher/student romance, "...more outrage tends to occur when a male teacher and a female student are together than when it's the other way around."

Some things to consider if your story isn't clearly worksafe:

* Bump up the setting and ages a bit. Everyone attends a private university or college.
* Use a blanket disclaimer similar to the one on J-List: "All characters depicted in adult games, DVDs, magazines, books, and manga are at least 18 years old. No actual minor was used in the creation of these works."
* Emphasize drama. Help us understand Paul's relationships with his students, and what they think about him. Look for a middle ground in between "romance story where everyone's happy together, and no controversies erupt" and the extremes of either a "Lifetime Movie of the Week" or an "after school special."

The current age of consent in Canada is 16. (This is also true in the UK and Scotland.) If this topic is relevant to your story, read about it on Wikipedia.

[HalYac17]

A Scottish VN? That's definitely an interesting idea I'd be willing to try out in the future!

And yes, looking at this you may think it has all been done before, I'm but I am trying really hard to make some of the plot points different from the standard school life VN. Unfortunately, I can't say what these are on here due to them involving massive spoilers, but if/when you play it you'll know what I mean (note: Chapters 5 and 6 are the big ones to look out for!).

But on a side note, don't take it personally babe is one of my favourite games and Christine Love was definitely a major influence in this project, and I'm definitely going to check out Project Nattsu.

And now, to anwser your questions...

*Yes, if I were to rate this game, it would be PG13.
*There are 7 different endings in this game. During two of which, Paul finds himself in a romantic relatonship with a student. All other student relationships during all paths are friendships.
*I'm not sure what you mean by that, but with all of Paul's romantic relationships, the romance comes first. Also, the game is set only over the period of a few months. Hopefully that anwsers your question.
*I know there is a lot of controversy around the teacher/student relationship thing, but I made a deliberate descion to put the possibility of a teacher/student relationship in and use the controversy as a plot point. Hopefully this will be considered ok?
*Note that this game should (as far as I'm aware) be worksafe. There will be no scenes of nudity or gore, sex scenes will more or less go like >Person turns up to apartment >Screen goes black >Next morning (not that general, but the point I'm trying to make is that there will be no images or text describing sex) and all people Paul will be having sex with will be 18 years of age or older.
*The game does however feature cursing (hence my PG13 rating), does that make it not worksafe or...?

And thanks a lot for taking the time to reply, any and all feedback is appreciated

[gekiganwing]

A Scottish VN? That's definitely an interesting idea I'd be willing to try out in the future!

One of my intentionally absurd ideas for a setting would be a distorted "carnival mirror" version of Chicago. I grew up a moderate distance from the city, and my impressions of it have been based on a few small areas. Where my own experiences and a small amount of research can't fill a plot hole, just insert humor.

You said, "I'm not sure what you mean by that, but with all of Paul's romantic relationships, the romance comes first. Also, the game is set only over the period of a few months. Hopefully that anwsers your question."

I wasn't sure how much time the story spanned, or whether you would include an epilogue that happened years later. Thank you for clarifying this.

You also said, "I made a deliberate descion to put the possibility of a teacher/student relationship in and use the controversy as a plot point. Hopefully this will be considered ok?"

Every few months, a hugely hyped multi-million seller video game will get noticed by the mass media... usually because it has an implied sex scene or an egregrious amount of violence. But very few freeware and indie games get any press. I think most fans are thoughtful individuals who are not easily offended. I'm pretty sure that this small fandom will understand your intentions.

Finally, you said, "Note that this game should (as far as I'm aware) be worksafe. There will be no scenes of nudity or gore... there will be no images or text describing sex) and all people Paul will be having sex with will be 18 years of age or older. The game does however feature cursing (hence my PG13 rating), does that make it not worksafe or...?"

The term "worksafe" is rather vague. I guess the best definition would be the opposite of Not Safe for Work. To quote the current Wikipedia article on the topic: "...the NSFW tag is used in e-mail, videos, and on interactive discussion areas (such as Internet forums, blogs, or community websites) to mark URLs or hyperlinks which contain material such as nudity, pornography or profanity, which the viewer may not want to be seen accessing in a public or formal setting such as at work."

So yeah, I think that vaguely implied consentual sex and a moderate amount of foul language would merit a PG/PG13 movie rating, or the equivalent thereof. Don't worry about it too much.

[HalYac17]

Yeah, if I were to go ahead with the Scotland based VN, it would definitely be more of a comedy, drawing parallels between life in Scotland and other countries. Carnival mirror? So just Chicago but with a carnival theme... I like it!

And that's all great, thanks so much for your comments! I look forward to hearing what you have to say about the finished product!

[HalYac17]

UPDATE

So I've finished all the programming, and packaged it all, so I can send it away to be tested one last time before release. He's the vital stats, including the word count I got from lint.

Genre - Schol Life, Drama, Romance, BxG
Rated - PG13
Words - 41,620
Routes - 4
Endings - 7

Again, any questions or comments, please let me know and I'll get back to you!

[gekiganwing]

It sounds like your project is just about done. That was faster than I expected. Looking forward to seeing what you have been writing.

[HalYac17]

Thanks! I'm looking forward to releasing it and hearing what you have to say!

[HalYac17]

UPDATE
See orginal post for details!

[Anne]

Your game does seem to be a lot like don't take it personally, babe. You can choose to be a good man here though, I like that.
The plot was... surprising? I was like "wait, what? where did that come from?", not sure if it was intentional? And the ending was a bit sudden (maybe not true for other endings - I've only got 2 with Alison - by the way I was pretty sure her sprite is a boy, no?)
I've noticed some typos (went our seperate ways / Oero / wasn going/ being a but picky) *maybe I should have copied whole phrases, sorry if that's not helpful*

[HalYac17]

Yeah, dont take it personally was a rather large influence on this game. To be honest this project was just me learning to use RenPy though, so I didn't give the plot as much thought as I probably ought to have done...
I tried to make the plot twist sudden and unexpected, but perhaps I made it too sudden? If I recall correctly I think Alison's ending were the shortest, but if you think it's a problem in the other ending it may just be as simple as me being a bit lazy near the end of writing, which I will try to avoid in future projects, or if I decide to come back to this one
And I'm pretty sure Alison's sprite is a woman, but she is a bit masciline I guess. I chose that sprite because I felt it reflected her sterner, proffessional persona while in the school.
And that's great, thanks for picking up on those! I'll edit them for the offical release if I can get RenPy to work... As I said, this game is untested and my spelling is attrocious so thanks!
And thanks so much for playing, it may not be the best but I'm glad people are playing and enjoying it!

[HalYac17]

UPDATE!
See original post!

[Sleipnir56]

This looks like a cute game. It's simple, yet interesting at the same time. Will defiantly play when you get it out

[HalYac17]

Thanks a lot Sleipnir! If you're interested in playing it early, check out the related thread in Demos and Beta Testing (http://lemmasoft.renai.us/forums/viewto ... 45&t=26468) where you can play the latest version of Stillwater Creek! (It's complete, but almost entirely untested, hence why I put it there instead of Completed Games )

[philip]

Just finished this demo - very interesting; will be anxious to see the completed story with its various endings. Well done, although there are quite a few typos/misspellings. Still, it is a good story.

philip