Best Friends Forever [GxB/GxG][Fantasy/School-Life] DEMO

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blackcross12
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Best Friends Forever [GxB/GxG][Fantasy/School-Life] DEMO

#1 Post by blackcross12 »

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Set in their second year at the exclusive private school, Gainsford Abbey, the story follows four months in the lives of two school girls.
Saffron* and Melody have been best friends since middle school, but when a tragic accident seems set to part them forever, it’s time to find out what true friendship really takes.

*(protagonist – name can be changed)

Try the demo here:

Windows: http://bit.ly/2u7DFIh

Mac: http://bit.ly/2tXJ4kD



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You play as Saffron, though you will have the ability to influence your friend, Melody, as well –for better or worse- over the course of the game. There are ten romance options planned, five for Saffron and the other five for Melody, as well as friendship and club paths that can be embarked upon or ignored and a minor stat-building element.

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Saffron Hart
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Hot-headed and rebellious, Saffron has a reputation for being a bit of delinquent, but in reality, she is a nice person who looks out for her friends, especially Melody.



Melody Bradshaw
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Years of being bullied by her peers have left the good-natured Melody shy and all too willing to hide behind her more assertive best friend. But perhaps this year will be the one she finally learns to stand on her own two feet.


Susan Catchpole
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Serious and studious, Susan's quick mind is matched only by her sharp tongue. She has held the position of top-ranked student at the Abbey since the first year and is a prefect into the bargain, though she has few hobbies outside of lecturing their academically-indifferent friend, Kara.


Kara Caner
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As the daughter of the Abbey's headmaster, Kara doesn't make it easy on her father. Far more interested in fashion, gossip and boys, than studying, she seems to delight in flouting the school's rules -and riling up her friend, Susan, in the process.



Bradley Wystone
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Taciturn though not unfriendly, Bradley seems to spend much of his time alone. Despite his reserve, he plays the clarinet in the school orchestra, can often be seen training on the school field, and is among the top ten students at the Abbey.



Rex Patras
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Reputed as the most handsome boy in school, Rex has inherited the enviable good looks of his Greek father and Italian mother, and he puts them to good use trying to charm every girl he meets. His behaviour has made him many fans among the girls at the Abbey, and just as many enemies with the boys.



Marcus Li
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An excellent student, and second in the school’s academic league, after Susan, Marcus is strict and studious. He plays violin in the school orchestra and is both a prefect and member of the student council. Due to his reliability, many teachers end up using him to run errands about the school, much to his displeasure.


Simon Palfrey
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Simon is the captain of the school rugby team and he regularly leads them to victory with his cheerful, good-hearted encouragement. Though not strong academically, his willingness to try, kind attitude and success at sports makes him the most popular boy in school and an object of some rivalry between the girls.




Marie Parker
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Captain of the girls' hockey club, Parker -as she prefers to be called- is friendly, outgoing and eager to get some new faces onto the school team.



Sophie Winters
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Well-know around the Abbey as a bully, Sophie seems to take great delight in picking on Melody when her friends aren't around to stop her.



Finnegan Bryant
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Mr Finnegan Bryant, or ‘Foxy Finn’ as he is also known, is Melody and Saffron's young homeroom teacher. He has a passion for history, which he teaches, and loves his job. In class, he is friendly and kindhearted with his students, striking a balance between caring for them, but pushing them to do their best.



Lance Miller
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Died 1980s
Head boy when he was alive, Lance is kind, patient and the unofficial leader of the ghosts. When not keeping the peace between Switch and Iseult, he occupies his time with keeping an eye on the school’s aging caretaker, Carter.



Harriet Anderson-Blyth
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Died 1950s
Harriet claims that dying was when her life truly began. A voracious student when amongst the living, she was dreading the day she would have to graduate. Now Harriet merrily divides her time between attending classes about the school and reading the library – with occasional study breaks spent loitering about the boy’s locker room or aiding Switch in his tricks.



Switch Attwood
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Died 1840s
The angry roar of ‘Switch!’ is as familiar a sound in the abbey now, as it was in the 1840s. Riotous, though not mean-spirited, Switch is the Abbey’s resident trickster, a self-appointed role in which he has had a lot of practise. Once a torment to his school masters and fellow students, Switch’s love of tricks has endured the last hundred or so years, much to both Iseult’s and Lance’s dismay.



Tobias Bray
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Died 1550s
For Tobias, it seems little has changed since the school was the abbey where he served as a lay brother over 400 years ago. Shy and quiet, he spends his days tending the plants in the school’s greenhouses and taking great pains to avoid entering the main school buildings whenever he can.



Iseult of Southwark
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Died 1350s
The oldest of the ghosts, Iseult has spent the last six hundred years watching history unfold from within the abbey’s walls, an experience which has left her detached and world-weary. Despite this, she is willing to help others where she can and takes great pains to prevent both Switch, and sometimes Lance, from bringing trouble to the school.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Assets
Plot/character paths outlines: Completed!
Word count so far: 110,000 words (of an estimated 150,000)
Sprites: Completed!
Backgrounds: Completed!
CGs: 5%

Team
Writing and coding: Blackcross
Sprites/CGs: Ayachin
Backgrounds: Exitmothership
Additional art: MakeFox

This game will be commercial (about $20-$30 depending on how much the art ends up costing)
Rating: 13+ (There’s some mildly suggestive scenes and dialogue, and some minor bad language)

________________________________________________________
Hi everyone

I’ve been working on this VN for a while now, but I finally have some artwork courtesy of the uber talented Exitmothership, (check out his Deviantart page at exitmothership.deviantart.com and his Tumblr at exitmothership.tumblr.com, to see more of his work and to get information on commissions) so I thought it was time to put this out there.

I know this thread is mainly for feedback – I don’t expect much at the moment since it’s just an outline, but I’m going to be adding to it over the coming months and hope to have a demo ready by the end of the year.

Anyway, please let me know your thoughts so far – I’ll be posting here with renewed stats, more screenshots and character briefs once a month or so.

Thanks for reading

Blackcross & Taylor
Attachments
main_menu.jpg
SS3.jpg
SS2.jpg
SS1.jpg
CGHugs.jpg
opening.jpg
Last edited by blackcross12 on Sun Jul 09, 2017 5:23 pm, edited 16 times in total.

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Erikka
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Re: Best Friends Forever [Otome/GxB/GxG][Fantasy/School-Life

#2 Post by Erikka »

WooW! That looks good. I like how the story sounds and the backgrounds look fantastic!
Hope to see some progress in the future)

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blackcross12
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Re: Best Friends Forever [Otome/GxB/GxG][Fantasy/School-Life

#3 Post by blackcross12 »

Hello

Just a quick update. Exitmothership is busy finishing off another two backgrounds and I’ve just hit 92,000 words.

Converting this into progress, this means both the club paths are finished (hockey and orchestra), Melody’s friendship paths and all of Melody’s available romance paths have been done also, as well as the intro and other events that will occur in each playthrough (Halloween, Christmas etc). So with all things Melody pretty much done, I have started work on Saffron’s (PC) paths.

That said, I’m going to be taking a short hiatus from writing BBF to focus on an alternative project. This should only be until the end of September though, so if anyone is wondering about there having been no WIPs for a while, this is the reason.

By September, I am hoping to have some sprites available, and I will be posting character descriptions once that is the case.

Thanks for reading

BC&T

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blackcross12
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Re: Best Friends Forever [Otome/GxB/GxG][Fantasy/School-Life

#4 Post by blackcross12 »

Hello all

Phew, I’m finally finished with my other project and ready to get back to work on BFF. Not that I was able to take a complete break from it. I managed to get all the playtesting for Melody’s half of the game done, ironing out the kinks and adding some scenes where I felt the plot needed a little extra something.

That does mean the word count now is up to just over 100,000, but since this work was unexpected, I think that means the estimated word count on completion is now about 150,000.

I’m also happy to say I’ve managed to secure a sprite artist. We’re currently collaborating, so with a bit of luck I should have some example sprites to posts soon.

Anyway, the stats as they stand at the moment are as follows

Word count : 100,000/150,000
Sprites: 0%
Backgrounds: 18 of 51
CGs: 0%

Thanks for reading

BC & T

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Re: Best Friends Forever [Otome/GxB/GxG][Fantasy/School-Life

#5 Post by Didules »

Hello!
I'm quite surprised so few people have commented here, that's probably because sprites have yet to be here, so no worries though :)

I quite like the concept so far, though I wonder about the "fantasy" part since until now you did not develop it further. I'm also curious about the different characters and their personnality, because right now we ony know about two: Saffron (love that name btw) and Melody.
Sure there isn't much more I can say for now, but I'll probably be stalking this thread from now onwards, because you really have an idea with potential and you seem dedicated to finishing it ;)
Oh, and even the most obvious thing should be written: the background art looks wonderful :)

Keep on the good work and good luck ^o^)/

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Re: Best Friends Forever [Otome/GxB/GxG][Fantasy/School-Life

#6 Post by blackcross12 »

Hi Didules

I hear you about the sprites; having to wait so long for them has been driving me nuts! If I could draw anything more advanced than stick people, I think I would have given up and done them myself.

But no need for such drastic measures now (thank goodness!).

Once the sprites are ready I can get some character profiles up and then people should be able to get a better idea of what the game's going to be like.

Thanks for taking a look. ^_^

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Re: Best Friends Forever [Otome/GxB/GxG][Fantasy/School-Life

#7 Post by sakurakimuchi »

Everything is looking amazing so far! Good luck with this game~

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Re: Best Friends Forever [Otome/GxB/GxG][Fantasy/School-Life

#8 Post by blackcross12 »

Hello all

An update, at last! I’ve been working on BFF, tweaking things here and there and finishing the routes, but the real news is that we finally have a sprite artist –thank you, ayachin! Please check out her art commissions on the forums here when they are open again –her work is lovely.

Here is Saffron, the main character. She has a reputation for being rebellious and a bit of delinquent, but in reality she is a nice person who looks after her friends, especially Melody.

I’ll be posting up the sprites for the rest of the characters as they are finished.

Thanks for reading

Blackcross
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Re: Best Friends Forever [Otome/GxB/GxG][Fantasy/School-Life

#9 Post by blackcross12 »

Hello all

I just wanted to share some screenshots of the game now the MC's sprites have been coded. The current GUI was made (badly *wince*) by me, so I'll be getting a new one made by someone who can actually draw before launch.

As ever, thanks for reading.

Blackcross
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Re: Best Friends Forever [Otome/GxB/GxG][Fantasy/School-Life

#10 Post by blackcross12 »

Hello all

Just a quick progress update before the end of the year. Ayachin's been working hard on the sprites and there should be another two to unveil in early January.

In other news, I am happy to announce the script is now up to 110,000 words (of an estimated 150,000) and Zelan has joined the project as a proofreader/playtester.

Also, there are only 20 more backgrounds to go (of 51) before those are all completed. Thank you to exitmothership for his hard work.

And last, but not least, I wanted to share with you all the lovely picture Ayachin sent me for Christmas.

Thank you, Aya, and a happy new year to everyone following the project!

Blackcross
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Re: Best Friends Forever [Otome/GxB/GxG][Fantasy/School-Life

#11 Post by Unicorn_Magic »

Hi, I just saw this game and from whatever has been put up here, I can say it definitely sounds interesting! I really love the sprites for Saffron and Melody and Melody is like exactly how I imagined her to be~
The background art is so beautiful! *swoon*
There are many school life stories out there, but this one seems to be quite different, I especially liked the part where Saffron has the ability to influence Melody's life, it sounds really interesting! And also, I'm pretty curious about the accident that you mentioned :)
Oh and what kind of fantasy is involved in this game?
Anyways, looking forward to the progress and I wish you the best for your project~

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Re: Best Friends Forever [Otome/GxB/GxG][Fantasy/School-Life

#12 Post by blackcross12 »

Hello everyone

Our sprite aritist, Ayachin has been working hard and we have another three characters to unveil. I've just edited the original posted to keep the page tidy, but I've included a few of Melody's alternative outfits here as well.

As for the writing and coding, there is less to report -my time lately has been taken up with 'The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea', but I am hoping to start working on BFF again come the end of January.

Thanks for reading

Blackcross
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Re: Best Friends Forever [Otome/GxB/GxG][Fantasy/School-Life

#13 Post by blackcross12 »

Hello all

We've been slowly making progress over the last month. Ayachin has finished Melody and is now working on the last two 'girl' sprites (Susan and Kara, Saffron's good friends), after which she'll be moving on to the boys. After the boys are done, it's demo time! ^_^

And exitmothership has been hard at work and now we only have 12 backgrounds left to finish (yay!). Below are a few examples of his latest work.

Thanks for reading

Blackcross
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Re: Best Friends Forever [Otome/GxB/GxG][Fantasy/School-Life

#14 Post by SupersizeMyHeart »

Those backgrounds are amazing! It's pretty easy to find an artist that can make nice-looking sprites, but a LOT more difficult for someone who can do backgrounds. Nicely done!

I want to change Sophie so bad. If there's a way to get her to stop being a bully and join our friendship circle, you know I gotta do it. Can't wait to see how this progresses.
Hey, I'm making a game about kissing cute fast food mascots! Check it out here right here.

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Re: Best Friends Forever [Otome/GxB/GxG][Fantasy/School-Life

#15 Post by blackcross12 »

Hello everyone

I've just posted up the last two girls' bios (thank you, Ayachin), and I'm so happy to be moving on to the boys next. Since Ayachin plans to work on them all at once, I hope to have the sketches and bios for all of them up in the next couple of weeks.

As for the backgrounds, there are just 10 left to go now. Looking back to when exitmothership and I first began with over 50 of them to do, this moment feels so strange, like we'd never get here ^_^.

Thanks for reading

Blackcross
Last edited by blackcross12 on Wed Apr 19, 2017 2:48 am, edited 1 time in total.
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