For now, the game is in black and white, has no soundtrack, but contains a large number of dialogue choices (no auto-dialogue is used for the main character. If you've played Mass Effect or Fallout, I'm going for a similar branching dialogue style.) Romance is possible with several characters, but happy endings are few and far between. My focus is more on telling an interesting story with romantic elements than on a "chase the guy" pure romance.
I'd like to gauge the interest level for a project like this (though I'll release it even if I'm the only one who ever plays it.
) I'm particularly curious if the game being in black and white and/or the art style will be a deal breaker for people. I'm not the best or fastest artist, and though color may be an option some day, right now my time is limited and I'd rather get the game finished with line art than not at all.Title: Lyric: Lamia's Daughter
Story: Players take the role of Josephine Carroway, a young woman who has been confined to the remote Olvido Sanatorium against her will since she was a child. The False Doctors who run the hospital claim she poses a danger to society due to a supernatural "condition" inherited from her mother, who was a literal femme fatale. When she is offered a deadly deal by the Head Physician himself, will Josephine decide that freedom is worth the life of a stranger?
Setting: Olvido Sanatorium is a secretive compound disguised as a tuberculosis treatment center deep in the Arizona desert. An hour's drive away is Lyric, a mining town riding high on copper ore and liquor bootlegged across the border. The Threnody Pit Mine yawns south of town, and the dynamite blasting away day and night has made Lyric a literal boom town. This mine has quickly gained fame for its seemingly endless veins of copper with a dash of gold, and notoriety for the bizarre accidents and misfortunes that have plagued the miners and townspeople since the ground was first disturbed.
Characters:
Josephine Carroway
The protagonist of the game. Josephine spent her childhood moving from place to place with her beloved mother, who was involved with a series of wealthy men who all seemed to end up dead. When Josephine's mother mysteriously disappeared, strange men posing as doctors took Josephine away to Olvido Sanatorium. The False Doctors claim Josephine has the same ability to seduce men at will and sap their vitality away to nothing, and have therefore placed her in indefinite quarantine.
Everett St. John
An orderly at Olvido Sanatorium, Everett has been guarding and caring for Josephine for several years. He believes strongly in the hospital's mission, and that he is protecting Josephine from the world just as much as the other way around. Though he has never looked her directly in the eyes, he is clearly smitten with his "patient." His infatuation is rather painful in light of his responsibility to put Josephine down with deadly force if she were ever to break the rules of her confinement.
Lorenzo Espinoza
A bootlegger with a dangerous air, Lorenzo encounters Josephine completely by chance outside the Sanitorium. Or so he says, though he seems to know a suspicious amount about both Josephine and the False Doctors.
Cassius "Cash" Bashir
The newly rich owner of the Threnody Pit Mine, Cassius Bashir is still adjusting to money, popularity, and attention from women. With a reputation as unusually fair in his dealings with miners and their families, Cash is considered something of an odd duck by the socialites and old money who nonetheless faithfully attend the lavish parties at his estate. His refusal to sell the mine has earned the ire of Olvido's upper management, though why they are so intent on obtaining control of a copper mine is anybody's guess.
Screenshots:
Josephine's room/cell (I'm still working on the GUI, fonts, etc. Not my strong point.)
Dialogue response choices. There are multiple choices for every response from Josephine, and you can define her personality through your choices.
Olvido's gardens. Dialogue choices have the potential to change how characters feel about Josephine as well as provide or withhold information, influencing their actions later on.
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Feedback is very, very welcome!
. I don't mind that it's black and white at all. It fits well with the old-timey style of the game. Cassius and Everett are two names that I've always loved by the way X3.
