Lemma Soft Forums

HELLO THIS PROJECT HAS BEEN DROPPED. APOLOGIES.
Hey! This is my first game and it is mainly to help me get a handle of the Ren'Py system! Still, I plan on posting it and look forward to getting feedback and making more games. Especially since the GxG department of completed games is lacking. Though my goals were much more ambitious I do like the way this game is turning out.

About the game

You play as Jennifer, a high school student getting ready for the Valentines' day dance. You go through school and develop a better relationship with one of three girls to eventually work up the courage to ask them to the dance (or have them ask you, really, who knows?). What will come of young love?

Game features

The game has 3 obtainable girls, all of them are unique. The game will have 9 endings. There are no bad ending with the girls, only a good and a best ending. In the game, every class but art class is optional. Not attending class could get you an event and attending class could also get you an event. Careful, missing classes could have consequences as well.

Characters

Jennifer, our protagonist. Like every good (debatable) protagonist, she lost her mother at a young age. She doesn't let that get to her though and often uses humor to make her feel better about situations.


Ellen has been Jennifer's best friend since they were little. The two share everything! Well...not everything. They do share a sense of humor though, and more often than not find themselves laughing at the same things. Ellen may be close to Jennifer but she has her reasons for never getting too close. Ellen is crude and brash, those who don't know her well tend to get offended by what she has to say.


Sara is the smartest in the class. She can be a little shy and hard to understand but she means well. Unfortunately, Sara has built up walls, afraid of letting people in and allowing them to get to know her. She really isn't so shy or sweet but not many know that. Sera is ambitious and competitive though she suffers from a low self-esteem which holds her back from doing what she wants.


Maya is the school's princess. She's the daughter of a millionaire and consequently extremely popular. Jennifer can't stand her and isn't afraid of letting people know. Maya is scary, mainly because she's aware of her faults and shortcomings and isn't afraid of ensuing Jennifer's insults. She thoroughly enjoys picking on Jennifer and apparently cares little for what our protagonist thinks. Cold, daunting, and prim, Maya is the last person Jennifer would want to ask to the dance.


Jason - Friend
Rebecca - Jennifer's aunt
Conner - Friend
Michelle - Maya's friend (no sprite)
xxdarkmantisxx - ???
Mrs.Rostin - English teacher (no sprite)
Mr.Hamming - Math teacher (no sprite)
Ms.Quinn - Art teacher

PROGRESS
Script is 50% done
POSSIBLE sprite re-draw in a style like this-

Maybe be released as an update when game is finished

What I would like to know:
Are you guys interested in this? Based on what you see, would you play this?
Should I work on getting it out faster with bad art or later with (slightly) better art? Or get out a version with the bad art and then update to better art?
This is my first project, is there anything I should know?
Based on what you have seen, how can I improve?
I am horrible at code, is there any useful things I should know to make this better?
Other than that, please hit me with questions and criticisms.



Attached are Screenshots. (UPDATED TO SHOW CURRENT ART)

GxG game that's not in a Japanese setting! I'm sold on that alone!

I'm definitely interested in this game, mostly for the above reason, but also because I like the sound of Maya-- she sounds a little different to the usual GxG options, regardless of which sense you're meaning 'school princess' in. I'm kind of hoping for a catty primadonna based on that descriptor, but whatever goes down, I'm up for it-- relationships of one-upmanship and antagonistic beginnings are always a lot of fun.

As for art, I think the quality of art you've got in the screenshots would work fine, and a release with those sprites would be perfectly enjoyable-- but if you're thinking of polishing it, that could be good too. It's mostly down to whether you'd prefer to release sooner or later, I think.

Improvement-wise, I think you could stand to make all three of the girls a little more defined (or update their descriptions to give more details?) since at the moment, they all sound a little broadly characterised. While GxG games are definitely scarcer than... pretty much any other variety of romance VN... there is kind of a prevalence in games with GxG routes/GxG focus to make the ladies available either the 'best friend' archetype or the 'shy but intelligent' archetype (at least in the ones I've played?) and that means that a bit more definition might be needed to make Ellen and Sara stand apart from similar uses of those tropes. Maya's a little less typical in terms of GxG route offerings, but her descriptor is a little vague at the moment too. If you expand on the notes you've got up here, all three could be really cool, but at present the info you've offered is just a little too generic to be super compelling. Hopefully that sounds fair!

Best of luck with this, in any case, because you're very right-- we need more GxG games. So many more GxG games.

@kitsubasa

Oops I totally forgot to mention that Ellen and Sara are meant to be stabs at the tropes! Hence where more comedy comes into play in the story. For example Sara appears to be the shy, sweet girl when in actuality she is very vulgar and ambitious and simply keeps this hidden from people due to not believing that she could be allowed to be herself and fear that she may not be accepted for it.

Also yes! Thank you for your input. I shall work on better descriptions then

Yes- much more GxG games.

For those wondering what Maya might look like

Interesting. I'll keep an eye on this!

Actually, the way you are working is smart (i.e faster release with lesser quality art, yet proper enough to be shown). And indeed, that is your alpha. It's an important milestone because having the alpha ready fast is like saying your game is ready to be played, although not polished. Then you can work on the beta not having to worry about delivering an incomplete game
Hum, I think for now, you should focus on art. The code doesn't have to be fancy...it depends on how you picture the final product.
Also, how long is the game?

Good luck with it anyway!

@Railgun

Thank you! Yes, for now I will be focusing on the art since I have all the writing planned out and I can't seem to write more with the horrible Ellen sprite staring me down every time I test out the game. I have worked out a perfect style that is easy to do and still looks pleasing (see Maya).

As for the length of the game, I am not too sure. I don't plan on having it be too short but I also don't want it to be too long. I'm aiming to have one proper ending of the game be about 10-20 minutes but my main goal is to make sure the player isn't bored for the length of the game. The end result might be longer or shorter than that.

Progress Update:
Writting/Coding: 20%
Art: Jennifer, Ellen and Maya sprites are done. No CGs done.
Music: None in the game so far.

And for the lolz, here's one of my first drafts of Jennifer

How have I not seen this yet? As always, every GxG game gets a massive upvote from me. And this one especially, because I adore the art style. Quirky and kinda unusual.

Oh wow! Didn't see you update so fast Oo
Anyway, *whistle* the art is nice!!
Will you make customize the backgrounds as well?

I really like the finalized art, as well as the premise of the game. I'm not usually into GxG games but this one seems interesting enough.

More GxG games are always good, and this one is looking really nice so far! Good luck!

*claps forever and ever* I'm so freakin excited for this game. There's far too little Yuri games, and I can't wait to play it!!

Yay! I'm happy to see people are actually interested in this and I apologize for not updating in like..219838712 years or something. I haven't forgotten about the game!

I just finished ALL of the character art for the game. The game went through another style change and this one is okay...save for Maya. Maya looks horrible. So I might draw her again. But, you know.

Also the backgrounds are not made by me. I am not that talented at all.

UPDATE:

Planning - 100%
Art - 100% (No CGs yet, if I have time near the end I will include them. Also need to re-draw somethings)
Writing - 50%

This game will be out soon

So...the art of this game has been killing me. The art is all done but I can't help noticing that it's bad...a little too bad.

The Ellen sprite is probably the only one that doesn't look to bad. But, of course, Ellen isnt the only person in the game.

CURRENT PLAN: (If I feel like the game needs to be out sooner) Release the game with the art it has now and then work on a better a better art version as an update. Thinking of leaning towards more of an anime style, I have no clue what these other styles are supposed to be.

Example of the art. These sprites don't look too bad and I'm almost afraid to post the ones that do look bad...

The sprites aren't nearly as bad as you think. Now, I'm not a visual artist, so the value of my input is limited, but it seems that the biggest issue you have to work on is proportion. I'm sure some artists here would be willing to help you out.