Courting the Seasons [Romance- GxB,GxG][Fantasy]

[GreyLadyHelenaR]

Dude, this looks awesome! I can't wait to play it! I love Bioware games too, and pretty much all games with romanceable characters. I think that if they were in the DA world Elisedd would be Tal-Vashoth or an Avaar warrior (or maybe Chasind?), Gretchen would be Dalish, Fell would be a mage, and Theo would be either a Rivaini pirate or an Antivan rogue. The MC feels like a warrior too, or an arcane warrior like in DA:O. See, now I've psyched myself up and I'm minutes away from going full-on fangirl Anyways, best of luck to you!

[Harliqueen]

Dude, this looks awesome! I can't wait to play it! I love Bioware games too, and pretty much all games with romanceable characters. I think that if they were in the DA world Elisedd would be Tal-Vashoth or an Avaar warrior (or maybe Chasind?), Gretchen would be Dalish, Fell would be a mage, and Theo would be either a Rivaini pirate or an Antivan rogue. The MC feels like a warrior too, or an arcane warrior like in DA:O. See, now I've psyched myself up and I'm minutes away from going full-on fangirl Anyways, best of luck to you!

Thank you so much! It's really exciting to see you excited about it

Elisedd would probably be close to Chasind, the Spring court is based a lot on druids and celts (which I always imaging the Chasind were close to in Dragon Age)!

You can make the MC what you would like! There is a choice of 3 very different power types to choose from, and within those three there will be choices on how you would like to use that specific power type.

Thank you again for commenting, it really is so nice (and incredibly motivating) to get replies like this

[Steamgirl]

Ohhh this looks very much up my street! My favourite at the moment is Elisedd - I like serious characters. Also, the art looks great! Are you doing everything yourself?

By the way, I too love the Bioware romances. Can't wait to find out how this plays out.

[Harliqueen]

Ohhh this looks very much up my street! My favourite at the moment is Elisedd - I like serious characters. Also, the art looks great! Are you doing everything yourself?

By the way, I too love the Bioware romances. Can't wait to find out how this plays out.

Elisedd is definitely one of the more serious characters, his role is very important to him and only the most significant things will sway him to break any rules. He still gives a smile now and again though

I'm glad you like the art! It took a bit of a change after the initial idea I had. I was going to go rather 2D, to keep things a bit simpler, but instead ended up going for a more paint-like type style. It does mean the sprites take a lot longer, but it will be worth it

I am indeed doing everything myself, except the music. It's a heavy workload, but I'm loving it, plus it's kind of a bonus as I don't have to wait on others in order to move forward! Thankfully, though, I have a good amount of people around me that I can rely on for opinions and criticisms as I go.

(Bioware romances are great, right? I just needed more of them! And that's part of the reason I came up with this )

Hopefully, you won't have to wait too long to find out if it's your thing, the plan is still an October release for the demo.

Thank you so much for commenting It's really appreciated!

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I'll tack an update on this post too!

Unfortunately, my computer is having some major problems, and has to be sent off to be fixed, so I won't be around to update or reply for about a week or so. But, after that, hopefully no more crashes and losing tons of work! Which also means I can get things done quicker.

I have been working solely on the script for the demo the past couple of weeks, which I am pleased to say has been going really well! I will also be going back to doing art assets after my computer comes back, which means I should be able to show some stuff again (maybe even the main character sprites!).

Until then, I shall leave you with one of my favourite, short quotes from the script:

(After being sucked into another world, the first person who greets you doesn't seem to grasp how huge of a thing that is!)

L: "This must be terribly confusing for you-"
MainCharacter: "Oh, really, you think!"

[Agashi]

Wow, I am SO excited for this. Actually, I got a little nervous reading about this project, as a lot of it is very similar to what I'm trying to do with my own VN, but I figure the more fantasy/romance/kingdom-building out there, the merrier. I'm also a huge Bioware fangirl (Have been ever since the old days of Planescape Torment, and Baldur's Gate) and hearing that this game is going to be heavily influenced by it is awesome.

As far as the characters go, you now have me writing a Mother Nature/Sneering Courtier 1 fanfiction. Seriously, her design and especially her expressions are amazing. Very interested to see who the mystery romance option is, but for now sign me up for Team Theo.

I'll be book-marking this page and checking back for updates. I wish you speedy progress!

[Harliqueen]

Wow, I am SO excited for this. Actually, I got a little nervous reading about this project, as a lot of it is very similar to what I'm trying to do with my own VN, but I figure the more fantasy/romance/kingdom-building out there, the merrier. I'm also a huge Bioware fangirl (Have been ever since the old days of Planescape Torment, and Baldur's Gate) and hearing that this game is going to be heavily influenced by it is awesome.

As far as the characters go, you now have me writing a Mother Nature/Sneering Courtier 1 fanfiction. Seriously, her design and especially her expressions are amazing. Very interested to see who the mystery romance option is, but for now sign me up for Team Theo.

I'll be book-marking this page and checking back for updates. I wish you speedy progress!

Sorry for the late reply! Using my old laptop whilst my computer is gone, and had to find my log-in for the forum.

Definitely more the merrier of these games, I think! It's something that a lot of people want, and after looking over yours I have to say I am really excited about it!

Bioware is a heavy influence, I absolutely love their story telling, and I really enjoy the sense of the heroic, epic story, but I really needed more romance in there. Hopefully, that's what this VN will be like

I really will have to give 'Sneering Courtier 1' a name soon I'm glad you like her design, I've spent a good amount of time trying to make every character individual, even the ones with very small roles!

Theo is becoming the most popular so far! Must be the bedroom eyes

Thank you so much for commenting, it's really motivating and awesome to hear people are excited for this!

[Harliqueen]

Update time!

Finally got my computer back and it seems to be completely fixed!

Hopefully that will mean I can really power through now, and maybe get the demo out in October (fingers crossed).

Still working on the script, which is going even better than expected. I will put stats for it when I am halfway through, which hopefully will be at the next update.

Until then, have a sketch of Fell which I did yesterday to test out my fixed computer- photoshop didn't crash once, it was amazing!



That does remind me- I am struggling to find the brushes I used to have for photoshop, so some things may look a bit different from the original concept pictures.

[Harliqueen]

Update time

I have been knuckling down and getting on with the art assets. I only have 1 and a half backgrounds to go to finish all the backgrounds for this section, so yay! Then two more sections to go before all the stuff for the demo is done.

Managed to finish a couple of sprites, including a main one-

Meet Lance:



He's steward to the Gaia throne, and the first person you encounter once you stumble through to the Seasonal Realm.

He plays quite a big part in your journey, acting as guide and, sometimes, protector against incredibly nosey courtiers!

-

As for the script, it's coming along really well. I will stop working on it now until I've finished the art for this section, but the script is all done for this bit.

Code: Select all

The game contains 2,956 dialogue blocks, containing 39,209 words and 205,264
characters, for an average of 13.3 words and 69 characters per block.

The game contains 45 menus, 3 images, and 14 screens.

Those statistics are just over half of what will be in the actual demo, as I have just passed the halfway point in writing. (Obviously, there will be a lot more images too I just haven't coded them in yet.)

The next task is the backgrounds and then the sprites for the love interests!

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I know I didn't put questions in the original post for people to answer about the game, as I didn't think there was much point until people got to experience it. So when the demo is released, I will be putting up questions that maybe people will kindly answer

The expected release date for the demo is still October, but if things progress the way they are, it might be delayed yet again until November :/ I will keep everyone posted!

[Agashi]

Loving the new art! Especially the sketch of Fell, which has a sort of Rob Stark feel to it (book version, not tv version, though both are yummy). Oh wait... Winter... Fell... Winterfell? I see what you did there.

[Steamgirl]

He looks great! I can't wait to meet him in-game. He seems like a wise and humble character.

A small side note - the back of his head seems a bit narrow from the side-view? I would extend the hair out a bit further to make it look like the hair is growing out of the head.

[Harliqueen]

Loving the new art! Especially the sketch of Fell, which has a sort of Rob Stark feel to it (book version, not tv version, though both are yummy). Oh wait... Winter... Fell... Winterfell? I see what you did there.

Thank you so much! I'm glad you liked it, I really needed to get back in the art game after my computer returned.

I admit- I haven't read or watch any Game of Thrones stuff! (I know, I know, I'm should really get up to date on reading and TV watching! ). But, I'm hoping the Rob Stark feel is a good thing!

I chose the name Fell because it's a viking name, and the Winter Court is loosely inspired by the vikings

Thank you so much for commenting, it's really appreciated!

He looks great! I can't wait to meet him in-game. He seems like a wise and humble character.

A small side note - the back of his head seems a bit narrow from the side-view? I would extend the hair out a bit further to make it look like the hair is growing out of the head.

Wise and humble are good words to describe him. He's certainly been around long enough to know what's what!

Ah, thank you so much for the critique! I have to go back and fiddle a bit with his sprite anyway, so that will give me a chance to sort out his hair

[Suika]

This is exciting! I love the art style - especially Lance's design.

I'm really looking forward to seeing more of Elisedd though ^^

[Harliqueen]

This is exciting! I love the art style - especially Lance's design.

I'm really looking forward to seeing more of Elisedd though ^^

I'm really glad to hear you like the style- it's much different to what I'd planned, but I'm glad I'm going for this style instead!

I'm actually working on Elisedd's sprite at the moment, so hopefully it won't be too long until the sprites for all the love interests are revealed

Thank you so much for commenting, I really appreciate getting your feedback!

[Harliqueen]

Update time!

Sorry for the late update! I wanted to get all the bases for the 5 love interest sprites done before posting. But, the bases are done Now I only have to shade them all, but the hard work with all the arm poses and head poses, and clothing, etc is done. Colouring can be the fun part!

I've still been working on the script, which is progressing really well.

Code: Select all

The game contains 4,326 dialogue blocks, containing 56,228 words and 293,169
characters, for an average of 13.0 words and 68 characters per block.

The game contains 50 menus, 3 images, and 14 screens.

[/b]

Still got a good bit of writing to go before the script for the demo is done. The figures above do include part of the secret romance route, which won't be included in the demo, but I thought I'd go on and write it whilst doing the script and take it out before releasing the demo.

Once the sprites for the love interests are completed, I will start adding them to the game to see what they look like. So you can expect screenshots some point soon

Things seem to be coming together quicker now (guess it helps that I got my computer fixed!), so hopefully the demo won't be too far in the future

[Harliqueen]

Update

I've finally managed to finish a love interest sprite! Yay!

They are taking a looooong time, but that's because they have so many expressions, arm poses, heads, etc. It'll be worth it in the end.

Here is Gretchen!

I'm pleased how she came out. I wanted her to be attractive (obviously!), but not conventionally so.

I'll be working on Fell next, so hopefully will be able to put him later this week or next week.

When I've finished all the love interest sprites, I will update the front page with their new art, as it's quite different to what is up there at the moment

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As for the script, it's coming along well. Haven't written much more to it than the last update, but have gone through editing it quite a bit, so it reads much smoother. My plan is to finish the sprites, code them in up to the point I've done, then work on the next chunk of art and writing!