A Stroke of Madness [Mystery/Drama] New Teaser Video Dec 08!

[astrokeofmadness]

A fully voiced Visual Novel that embarks on an intimate journey of self awareness and the consequences of one's actions. The main character finds himself trapped in a forest; slowly slipping into madness as he attempts to ground his memories of how he got there.

Teaser video

The setting is a forest. The time is a few minutes before nightfall. He has awoken in the forest and has absolutely no clue how he arrived there. He looks in an attempt to find something to anchor himself to, but all he manages to find is a young woman who also appears to be lost. He is unsure if he can trust her, but she seems to be his only respite in this strange solitude he finds himself caught in. There is a strange aching in his head as he walks through the woods in the dark, something isn’t right, but he can’t pinpoint what the problem is. As he falls asleep for the first night he finds himself enveloped in a dream...No not a dream...a nightmare. Will he find his way out of the forest and unravel why he is there, or will the strange dreams and paranoia get to him and leave him lost, alone or possibly worse?

Myself: Founder, Backgrounds/Splash pages
Caplain: Lead Writer
Gabrielle: Sprites
Belgerum: Lead Composer
LeafCascade: Secondary Composer
Renpiased: Coding
Starlightsky: Aria Voice
Metatron3X: Blaise Voice
JoeyKat: Viviane Voice

multiple personality system
3 endings
Fully voiced
Short game length- Around 1 hour
As many CG's as I can cram into it in the time I have (Currently have 3 wip, likely going to be 10+)
Possibility of expansion- ala light Novel style

The game features a very small cast of characters as this is meant to be a very intimate story that relies heavily on how these characters interact. Only Aria's design is finalized.

Backgrounds:WIP




Screenshots:

(The word you hover over will animate with the water animation below)

Other bits of info:
This is meant to be a short game, the original goal was an hour of solid play. This may increase but the goal is no less then an hour. The game will feature 2 main endings(good and bad ends) as well as a true end, which extends the story in a meaningful way. Due to the personality system, the story can be played a second time to get a very different experience with Aria. This is actually recommended as it plays into the true end(might make both plays required to unlock). If I have the time there will be a third personality added. This visual novel is not a dating sim, and it also will not include Japanese honorifics/slang etc. Its rating will be something along the lines of PG13, or T for teen.
We are looking at a launch of sometime early 2015, I'm personally gunning for February if we can manage it.


Finally questions for your guys!

1: Do you like the blue in the logo? I had a lot of trouble deciding on if it should be white or not, but I kind of thought it needed some color.

2: Do you like the titlescreen? This is like the third titlescreen design, the last one had spinning gears and a silhouette of Aria. Also the blue bird is animated and flies across the screen every once in a while. As is the water in the Start, Load, Prefs, Save buttons. Do you think the text is too hard to read?

3: Do you think I should require the True End unlock to have completed a play-through with both personalities? (I kind of hate gated content that requires replaying things but I can see the merit of having both versions played first)

4: Are you alright with the game having such a limited cast and being a short playthrough? I originally intended the cast to be small because I was working on my own so I designed a small scope project. At this point the story is more or less planned out and can't really have more characters added, so I hope you like the characters you do get ^_^

5: Do you have any big unanswered questions or concerns?

IndiDB Page

[Ghost #9]

1. I LOVE the logo! Even without having seen the black and white version, I personally think the splash of blue ties the whole thing together and really makes it pop. I'm really liking how the font was set up as well.

2. I'm a fan of animated title screens in general. Like the logo, the minimalist use of blue here works quite well. The font works well enough considering how the rest of the pieces are set up, but I find myself wondering how it might look if it was black with a white outline (as in the logo) instead.

3. That is very much dependent on how the story is set up. I actually like having a new story unlocked after completing the others. It's like...a goal for me to achieve, with an attached reward. However, a lot of people are bothered by this from what I've seen. If it's justified by needing to have played through the other two endings to fully understand and appreciate the true ending, then I say lock it. But, as the true ending there should be something about it to make it clearly stand out from the other two.

4. I don't think there is anything inherently wrong with a small cast. As with most things, it depends on how the story is presented. Indeed, there could be a perfectly fine story with only one character. I find myself a bit concerned with the girlfriend aspect, though. Do the flashbacks actually contribute to the player's understanding of the plot and what happened to land Blaise where he is, or are they just meant to show different aspects of the character's life? Character development and backstory are both great devices, but if it doesn't actually add anything to the plot it could be more distracting than engaging.

5. I'm a bit confused by the multiple personality system. At first, I assumed that Aria had multiple personalities and that this would manifest itself in-game, but the way it is described it seems that her personality is merely determined by a single choice that the player makes early on in the game...? This doesn't seem to be very realistic if we're talking about the actual disorder. If this is instead a way of presenting different sides of the character, that also doesn't seem to be very realistic because I don't think any one thing can alter a person's overall behavior that extensively. There is also the possibility that the character basically doesn't have a set personality until the player makes their choice, but that makes the character seem less developed (like you're essentially dealing with a completely different character depending on your choice). Maybe I'm just not understanding, or maybe it'll be clearer in the actual game...

I'm always up for a good mystery, so I will be sure to check this out once it is released. I'm also actually always curious to hear English voice actors in visual novels, since it's somewhat rare.

[astrokeofmadness]

1. I LOVE the logo! Even without having seen the black and white version, I personally think the splash of blue ties the whole thing together and really makes it pop. I'm really liking how the font was set up as well.

2. I'm a fan of animated title screens in general. Like the logo, the minimalist use of blue here works quite well. The font works well enough considering how the rest of the pieces are set up, but I find myself wondering how it might look if it was black with a white outline (as in the logo) instead.

3. That is very much dependent on how the story is set up. I actually like having a new story unlocked after completing the others. It's like...a goal for me to achieve, with an attached reward. However, a lot of people are bothered by this from what I've seen. If it's justified by needing to have played through the other two endings to fully understand and appreciate the true ending, then I say lock it. But, as the true ending there should be something about it to make it clearly stand out from the other two.

4. I don't think there is anything inherently wrong with a small cast. As with most things, it depends on how the story is presented. Indeed, there could be a perfectly fine story with only one character. I find myself a bit concerned with the girlfriend aspect, though. Do the flashbacks actually contribute to the player's understanding of the plot and what happened to land Blaise where he is, or are they just meant to show different aspects of the character's life? Character development and backstory are both great devices, but if it doesn't actually add anything to the plot it could be more distracting than engaging.

5. I'm a bit confused by the multiple personality system. At first, I assumed that Aria had multiple personalities and that this would manifest itself in-game, but the way it is described it seems that her personality is merely determined by a single choice that the player makes early on in the game...? This doesn't seem to be very realistic if we're talking about the actual disorder. If this is instead a way of presenting different sides of the character, that also doesn't seem to be very realistic because I don't think any one thing can alter a person's overall behavior that extensively. There is also the possibility that the character basically doesn't have a set personality until the player makes their choice, but that makes the character seem less developed (like you're essentially dealing with a completely different character depending on your choice). Maybe I'm just not understanding, or maybe it'll be clearer in the actual game...

I'm always up for a good mystery, so I will be sure to check this out once it is released. I'm also actually always curious to hear English voice actors in visual novels, since it's somewhat rare.

Thanks for the input!

A few answers-
The girlfriend/past events play directly into the plot and is essential to the good ending(I'll spoil it, you get out of the forest ) The main reason I included a small cityscape into the logo is to kind of show that the past events do in fact matter enough to get representation. (The flashbacks don't simply serve a "Lost tv series" purpose of showing you what life was like before for comparisons sake.)

The true end is 100% going to be of big importance to the story, id argue that the player is literally missing out on a load of hidden plot details without it.

The personality changes were originally planned to be directly related to your choices throughout the game, but this idea slowly became less and less feasible. So I then retooled it to be tied to the start of the game as you meet her. This means that you play the game with effectively 1 version of Aria(or in your perspective just Aria since you wouldn't know about this system) Then if you play again and try the other option, you wind up with a different character basically. It is not a take on multiple personality disorder- at least not in the literal sense.(I don't think Im qualified to do a full on disorder justice) I haven't entirely worked out the kinks to the implementation yet, but I do have a justification for this system in the plot that I hope works to tie it all together.

Also its worth noting- I forgot to include it in the writeup- but there will be mild fantastical elements(And no I do not mean characters shooting fireballs) Think say... well I already used "Lost" as a reference, so think of lost.(With less stupid of course...) Although it could be implied by the premise to some degree anyways what with the mysteriously waking up in a forest without knowing how he got there. I assure you the ending reveal isn't that he was dragged into the forest by mobsters! But it also isn't "He stole a book from a wizard so he teleported him into a forest" either!

[Ghost #9]

Thank you for clearing all of that up! I hope you'll forgive me if my comments came across as suggesting that you didn't have all of this figured out. I just figured I'd toss in some advice for things I've commonly run into, and also get a bit of clarification here and there.

I'm looking forward to seeing how the multiple personality system is implemented! I'd actually assumed from the beginning that there would be some fantastical elements, but that does make me even more intrigued as to how it will all play out.

Also, I've actually never seen Lost. xD
But, I do understand your references for the most part, from what I've read on it.

[astrokeofmadness]

Random Sketch Sunday! Today I relearned that I'm terrible at chibi proportions!

[Godline]

Yeah, but that chibi is fine. All you need really. I'm excited to see this.

[astrokeofmadness]

So I took your advice Ghost #9 and tried inverting the black and white. Overall it looks better but it also feels more empty with all that white space, so I think I'll have to expand the black more somehow. will post pictures whenever I get around to finishing it.(current version used a lazy color replace function to quickly test and on the text it caused some errors)
Also I drew another chibi last night instead of going to sleep!

[astrokeofmadness]

Welp I lost my writer due to some personal issues she has to deal with, so I'm currently on the lookout for a new Writer. I also cut my thumb and havent been able to draw for the last 3 days, gonna see if I can properly hold a stylus today... And my third monitor's cable stopped working so I'm forced to slum it out with 2 monitors until the replacement arrives in the mail... how barbaric...

So since I haven't worked on anything in a few days, I'll post the edited menu screen, feedback if you think the open white space is a bit too overbearing would be appreciated.

[Caplain]

1/2: The blue in the logo looks pretty good in my opinion, although the start/load/prefs/quit buttons look a little off with two colors like that. Other than that the title screen looks pretty good (both versions you posted).

3: If the content is that short, then you can definitely leave the true end until the other two are finished. That way the player gets the most out of the story, and doesn't have to put in a huge amount of time either.

4: Considering the time frame, the number of characters seem appropriate too, as long as the plot can last an hour or so.

5: I'm interested in being a writer for this. If you want (or if the position is still open) I can give you a writing sample or something.

[astrokeofmadness]

1/2: The blue in the logo looks pretty good in my opinion, although the start/load/prefs/quit buttons look a little off with two colors like that. Other than that the title screen looks pretty good (both versions you posted).

3: If the content is that short, then you can definitely leave the true end until the other two are finished. That way the player gets the most out of the story, and doesn't have to put in a huge amount of time either.

4: Considering the time frame, the number of characters seem appropriate too, as long as the plot can last an hour or so.

5: I'm interested in being a writer for this. If you want (or if the position is still open) I can give you a writing sample or something.

1/2- the two colors in the main menu looks better in motion/1080p. The blue in the letters is wavy to look like water, and when you hover over it the water starts moving around.

5- I'd be happy to receive a sample of your writing, I recently(hour ago) sent 1 pm to a member asking about the position, if they say no/dont respond, then you'll be next on the list of candidates. Just to be fair to the fact I spoke to them first and all.

[astrokeofmadness]

Here is what I mean when I say the text is animated:

Only the word you hover over will animate ingame*

[astrokeofmadness]

*Added a sketch of the girlfriend- who has now been named: Viviane, and also stylized all the characters into their own imaged boxes. Both Blaise and Viviane's designs are still up in the air however. Also added the voice actor for Viviane

So new question-
6: Do you like the design of these two? Is a black leather jacket a bit too stylin?

[raistlintg]

Hi !!

1) The blue looks just fine and so does the logo.
2) This title screen is perfect, very poetic, don't change anything !

3) I think you should unlock everything before the true ending.
The true ending should be the final memory of the game !

4) Small cast isn't a problem.
Narcissus has a small cast. Isn't it a great game though ?
But being too short can be a shame if the story is good !

5) Aria's hand look a little strange ... but it's nothing serious at all !

6) No problem with the design of these character.

Good luck to you !!

[astrokeofmadness]

Lol I deleted the previous post with its picture cuz I hated it so much...

Here is a preview of the new revision I'm working on - need to figure out a way to 3Dify the lips a bit, and I just realized her chin is still too big...

[astrokeofmadness]

Added a Teaser video above- link here as well
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNpbaZ3T2JI
Disclaimer-
This is shown in Ren'py and wasn't made with video editing software. None of the text from this teaser is actually in the main game.
# credits https://www.freesound.org/people/Epheme ... nds/76391/

Also finally made an indiedb post, posted a news story on the process I had to get to the current iteration.
http://www.indiedb.com/games/a-stroke-of-madness