A light-hearted VN about the deep stuff in life -- astrology, friendship, first loves.
RHEA is used to being roped into her ambitious childhood friend WESLEY’s wishy-washy plots. His latest is no exception. He’s created an astrology club -- which, for some reason, people seem to think is a matchmaking service or something. Okay. That’s all well and good. That she can deal with. What she can’t deal with, though, is the fact that the guy she’s been crushing on for ages, GILBERT, wants them to set him up with shy CASSIDY! Rhea’s guileful gal-pal ADRIANNE tells her this is her chance -- do some scheming here and there, and Gilbert will be hers for the taking! On the other hand, straight-laced Wesley, as always, is only concerned with doing the job they’ve been asked to do… What’s a girl to do?
CHARACTERS
Rhea, our hapless heroine, Libra.
"Look, I'm 17 and all I want is to be left alone. I need to realise my full potential as a freaking ~young maiden~, okay? You know: quick glances, quiet giggles, maybe a teary-eyed and hope-filled love confession or two? Oh well. Whatever. Looks like that's waaay too much to ask for when both your best friends are meddlesome schemers."
Wesley Sohn, Virgo. (Obtainable - Romance)
"Don't you think it's so fascinating that everything around you can be tied to some aspect of ancient history? Take astrology, for example. It was the Babylonians that came up with the first form of organised astrology, sometime around 2000 BC, and... it's usually at this point that Adrianne cuts in and tells me to 'stop talking, for heaven's sake'. Sigh."
Adrianne Campbell, Leo. (Obtainable - Romance)
"God. This isn't rocket science. It's not like you want to solve the mysteries of the universe. Rhea, I like you and all, but I've been listening to you gushing over this guy for months. There's only so much conversation about Gil's beautiful powder-blue eyes a girl can take. Just have a few strategic run-ins and, before you know it, he'll be putty in your hands. I need to start carrying around an Easy Button -- you know, like, 'that was easy'."
Gilbert Kloet, Scorpio. (Obtainable - Romance, Friendship)
He's been Rhea's Calculus study-buddy for a few months, but she doesn't know too much about him. Let's say that her crush is more, uh, aesthetically-inspired.
Cassidy Nunes, Taurus. (Obtainable - Friendship)
She's quiet and usually keeps to herself -- Cassidy doesn't seem to have many friends. According to Wesley, she volunteers every day at the school library. What next, does she also help old ladies carry heavy grocery bags and save kittens?
SCREENSHOTS
PROGRESS
As of March 10, 2014: The game contains 469 dialogue blocks, containing 6,161 words and 33,538 characters, for an average of 13.1 words and 72 characters per block. The game contains 4 menus, 17 images, and 13 screens.
COMMENTARY
- This is all in-progress art! Fear not, Wesley will get some pupils at some point and Rhea doesn't hold the monopoly on shiny hair!
- A legitimate thing that I thought about was diversity in characters' looks. For the longest time, I always drew the same facial structure, same body type, same everything. This is my first foray into consciously creating difference and, while it's not perfect, I'm pretty satisfied with it.
- I debated for a while on which characters I should put in the main menu. The tried-and-true formula seems to be “stick in all the obtainables”, but I thought about it a little bit and realised that “Twinkle Twinkle”, at its heart, is more of a story about friendship. So BAM. Here we have the three amigos: Wesley, Rhea, and Adrianne.
- The plot's catalyst (i.e. the main event) is centred around matchmaking Gil and Cassidy -- does Rhea let her first love go quietly or does she put up a fight? -- BUT when I say "obtainable", I mean there are sub-plots involving the different characters. The default path is "friendship with Wes and Adrianne", so they don't have specific friendship paths.
- I'm a total noob when it comes to GUI modification. What I tried to do was make something minimalist and "functional", which is why the preferences screen is missing so many things. I hope that doesn't bother anyone, haha.
I'd love to hear any comments you might have! Here are just some questions that came to mind -- please don't feel obligated to answer ALL of them, but feedback would be appreciated! It'd definitely help me improve what I've got so far.
- Are you FEELING that textbox? I tried to give it a "galaxy" kind of look to fit the theme, but I'm not sure how it works, you know, as an actual textbox...
- How much do you know about the astrology? Would you want it as a prevalent part of the story? I'm currently leaning towards the zodiac signs as more of a "footnote".
- We can probably agree that school-life otome games have pretty much been done to death. Is there new you'd like to see brought to the setting? Are there any clichés that bother you about the setting?
- Who do you think is the most appealing character, personality-wise? The least appealing? Which particular path do you think you'd pursue first?
- I find that some otome games are like "WE ARE SUDDENLY LOVEY-DOVEY". That can be nice, but I'm trying to make the relationships as realistic as possible in the context of my characters' circumstances. Would it bother you if a romance path ended with more of a "new beginnings" or "possibility" tilt to it? (Sorry for vagueness!)