Lemma Soft Forums

Introduction

After taking some time off from school, twenty-year-old Sybil transfers to the unfamiliar Frost College for her third year. She hopes that the change of environment will help her figure out what she wants from life—well, that, and her mother kicked her out of the basement. It isn’t long before she attracts the attention of three strangers: James, her adventurous roommate; Thalia, a scatterbrained classmate; and Rose, an enigmatic professor. It’s up to you to decide which one of them she pursues, but make sure that she can balance her love life and schoolwork without getting overwhelmed!

This is my first visual novel project, and it will probably take me a while to finish it, since I have a lot of writing to do on top of being university myself! But I'll be posting updates here and on my blog for anyone who's interested. First I'm going to focus on writing the first quarter of the story, up until midterms in first semester, which will determine which of the romance paths you're taking. Then I'll have that as a beta for people to enjoy while I work on the rest!



The Main Characters

All sprite art is by Didules, some of it recoloured by me.


Sybil is the story’s protagonist. Before transferring to Frost College, she spent a year living with her mother and working odd jobs. She is uncertain about what she wants to do with her life, but enjoys studying English literature.


Rose is Sybil’s drama professor. Sybil is fascinated by her unusual teaching methods, as well as her young age in comparison to other professors. Rose is passionate about the theater, and also loves poetry.


James is one of Sybil’s new roommates. He does not attend college, as he doesn’t like to tie himself down to one location, preferring to move around when it strikes his fancy. This distaste for lengthy commitments also extends to his views on relationships.


Like Sybil, Thalia loves literature. However, her grades don’t always reflect her knowledge of the subject, as she tends to stay up late writing and then fall asleep in class. She dreams of one day making a living as an author.



Questions

1. Does anyone have any advice for a beginner programmer on getting the schedule and stat bars to work? I've looked at several tutorials and I got some help in this thread, but I still don't have it all figured out. Got it working, thanks guys!

2. What would you like to see in this type of game?

3. Which of the love interests (Rose, James, Thalia) are you most interested in, and why?

Thanks for reading, and I hope to bring you a great game soon!

Edit August 2nd: Replaced the terrible concept art with a screenshot from the actual game! Still not final yet, but I've figured out how to use the DSE. Thanks to the commenters who recommended it!

Edit August 13th: Added more screenshots and information on the characters!

Aww yeahhh sim games *V*

1. Does anyone have any advice for a beginner programmer on getting the schedule and stat bars to work? I've looked at several tutorials and I got some help in this thread, but I still don't have it all figured out.
I just modified the DSE to get everything down, but it's really outdated, haha. Screens will probably be what you'll focus on for the schedule and stat bars, so you'll need to learn the Screen Language really well. If you run into any trouble, you should ask, though. The Ren'py Questions and Announcements section is pretty active. \o/

2. What would you like to see in this type of game?
What I'd like to see in all sim games: lots and lots of interesting events! :)

3. Is there anything else you'd be interested in knowing about it?
I'm wondering how the sim part of the game is related to the potential love interests. Do you see a character more often by choosing a certain class? (I'm assuming it'll be classes that determine where you meet them, unless choosing the study option on a certain day will help you meet them, too.) The game seems to be pushing for one kind of build only, which is: get grades as high as possible. How many endings are there, and will your grades affect the endings that you get?

I'm also wondering what are the pros for choosing to relax during daytime. Relaxing at night seems better all around since there's no penalties, so it seems like the same option for the day won't be chosen often. Unless stress rises so fast in the game that all the nights relaxing won't lower it enough. :'D Oh, or unless relaxing during the day gives you more energy than relaxing at night! Is that what you meant by 'makes her feel more relaxed'?

Also, on a rando note, the transparent guy with glasses makes me imagine that there might be ghosts involved, haha.

Anyway, good luck with your game! :D I'm looking forward to it.

sempersapiens wrote:


Questions

1. Does anyone have any advice for a beginner programmer on getting the schedule and stat bars to work? I've looked at several tutorials and I got some help in this thread, but I still don't have it all figured out.

2. What would you like to see in this type of game?

3. Is there anything else you'd be interested in knowing about it?

Thanks for reading, and I hope to bring you a great game soon!

Yey more simulation games. I'm working on one that's really similar to this project.

Anyway:

1. You might want to build a DSE-ish system for yourself. The reason behind this is (I think) DSE hasn't been recently updated, and uses a lot? of pre-screen language code in it. Well you can modify it if you can. To be honest though, DSE still works wonders despite its age.

2. I hope it's not linear, at least for the options.

3. Nah, none for now. I'm more interested about the system rather than the characters/settings.

I'm wondering how the sim part of the game is related to the potential love interests. Do you see a character more often by choosing a certain class? (I'm assuming it'll be classes that determine where you meet them, unless choosing the study option on a certain day will help you meet them, too.) The game seems to be pushing for one kind of build only, which is: get grades as high as possible. How many endings are there, and will your grades affect the endings that you get?

I'm also wondering what are the pros for choosing to relax during daytime. Relaxing at night seems better all around since there's no penalties, so it seems like the same option for the day won't be chosen often. Unless stress rises so fast in the game that all the nights relaxing won't lower it enough. :'D Oh, or unless relaxing during the day gives you more energy than relaxing at night! Is that what you meant by 'makes her feel more relaxed'?

Also, on a rando note, the transparent guy with glasses makes me imagine that there might be ghosts involved, haha.

Anyway, good luck with your game! I'm looking forward to it.

Yup, one character is your drama professor and the other is in your literature class, so you need to attend those frequently to make things work with them. I hadn't thought about the other options making you see someone else, but since the third option is your roommate, it would make sense if choosing to skip class meant you saw him more often! I'll think about that. I haven't planned out all the endings yet, but there will probably be at least seven, and grades will definitely affect at least two of them. Also having bad grades at various points in the year gives you a non-standard game over - you failed school, so you have to move back in with your mom.

That's a good point about the relaxing option too! What I have planned so far is that attending class gives you +1 stress (except one particular class with a mean professor that gives you +2), while relaxing gives you -1 stress and +1 happiness. "Relaxed" is just the opposite of stress on the stat bar. But you're right that relaxing at night seems way better, so maybe I'll make some changes to it, or come up with a way to make relaxing during the day better as well.

I've actually been referring to that character as Ghost Robin, but he's not really dead. Just someone Sybil imagines sometimes. Thanks for the feedback!

1. You might want to build a DSE-ish system for yourself. The reason behind this is (I think) DSE hasn't been recently updated, and uses a lot? of pre-screen language code in it. Well you can modify it if you can. To be honest though, DSE still works wonders despite its age.

I'll look into that! Thanks.

I've updated the main post with a screenshot of the week planning system I've got working now, and more information about the characters! Thanks akemicchi and curry for recommending using the DSE - now that I've figured it out, everything is a lot easier. I've been working a lot on writing and programming, and I'd say I'm maybe 25% of the way to releasing a demo/beta thing. So I'll hopefully have that by the end of September or so!