Spacefur: RUNAWAYS [Scifi/feelings/drama][GxG]

[Spacefur]

Studio Meh is proud to present :

Spacefur: RUNAWAYS will be a free visual novel created by our dynamic duo. Hopefully, it'll be the first opus of a serie of games taking place in the same universe.

In the future, people from Earth have finally gone to space. And it's not just your basic variety of regular humans either! Humanity is now composed of anthropomorphic animals and even sentient robots.

But the more things changes, the more it's the same. And even among the stars you've got love and tragedies.

People from that time still get into trouble. And they will still honor the ages-old tradition of dealing with said troubles by running away from them.

This is the story of such a group of people.

When Lucia stows away on a freighter ship for destination unknown, she has no idea who she will meet. Will she find love, friendship, or simply spend two weeks among strangers ?

This is Spacefur : RUNAWAYS.



Prologue writing: complete
Word count: +11000
Backgrounds: 5/10
Sounds: Prologue music tracks have all been chosen (Creative Common licence).
Sprites: complete !
CGs: 5/6


Artist : Azure (link)













And here's a sample of the backgrounds I'm working on:

F.A.Q (completely fake, because nobody ever asked any of these. We answered them anyways)

How many paths will there be?
There will be three paths, one for each person you can develop a privileged relationship with. It's a small-scale project, as it is our first, so we prefer to keep things manageable.

Is this a dating sim?
There are love interests and there is a story taking place... Just like most VNs, where the emotional strength comes from how deeply you come to care about the characters! There is no stat-building or anything like that though.

How long will the game be?
We have no idea yet. The prologue is entirely written and coded, the story outline is established, but we don't know how we're supposed to measure how much time it represents.

Why does the setting seem to extend beyond the visual novel ?
Because it's a setting Wee has been developing for a very long time as a homebrew roleplaying game setting. When we were looking for a VN idea, it popped in our mind as a good candidate. Spaceships, anthropomorphic animals and deep space hijinks, what's not to love?

Is this a furry game?
To be honest, probably, but I don't think it should prevent non-furries to enjoy it. There's no human love interest, though, I don't know if that's a no-no for some people? I guess it is. Sorry, we just didn't feel like it. In a later game maybe.

Why isn't the main character a cat/a dog/a racoon/an otter?
These are all cool anthro species, but this very question is specifically why we decided to have a human protagonist. Everyone has their own favourite anthro species, and some have anthro species they hate. A human main character was the most neutral choice we could think of. And the most relatable one

Will there be sex scenes?
Right now it has been decided not to have sex scenes, but there is something to say about a sex scene that follows a strong emotional buildup. Maybe in the end we'll propose optional sex scenes (a mature filter, so to speak), we don't know yet. And in any case, it's still far away in the development pipeline.
So right now, this project stays PG until further notice.



Our goal right now is to fully finish the prologue with non-copyrighted graphics and sounds (i'm not sure about releasing the internal use demo that has backgrounds from Firefly...) so we can put up a demo soon
We're looking forward to hearing about your impressions!

[gekiganwing]

How many paths will there be?
There will be three paths. it's a small-scale project, as it is our first, so we prefer to keep things manageable.

That's probably a wise idea. Don't commit to writing more than you can handle.

Managing a team of creators can be difficult. I have seen a number of freeware VN teams part ways before they finish a project, or even before they release a demo. Think carefully about how you will deal with conflicts.

How long will the game be?
We have no idea. The prologue is entirely written (not coded), the outline is established, but we don't know how we're supposed to measure how much time it represents. (I really admire professionals who can actually do that)

I recommend writing with at least one ending or key scene in mind. In other words, think of compelling ways in which your story could end. Or think of spectacular moments which could occur -- battles, chase scenes, confessions, and so on. Afterwards, let your story build up to this important scene.

Why does the setting seem to extend beyond the visual novel ?
Because it's a setting I've been developing for a very long time as a homebrew roleplaying game setting. When we were looking for a VN idea, it popped in our mind as a good candidate. Spaceships, anthropomorphic animals and deep space hijinks, what's not to love ?

Sometimes it's a good idea to create a story which is a small part of a larger universe. In other words, don't write about the entire continent of a fantasy story, but focus on the events which happen in a single village.

Lucia (Main Character)
Human/stow away/jack of all trades
Thanks to her charm and street smarts, Lucia manages to get herself out of most situations. Under layers and layers of abrasive humor, there's a kind and love-starved heart. Will she find what she desperately craves for?

The subject line of your forum post indicates that your story focuses on girl x girl relationships. Will all of the story-relevant relationships involve Lucia? Are there any relationships between non-playable characters which are important to the tale you are telling?

[SundownKid]

I agree with the above poster, the most important thing to do ASAP is to go read some tutorials on outlining and outline your game with a detailed summary down to each day/scene/whatever. Given that its more of a dating sim it doesnt have to be an action adventure story but having a detailed outline will save a lot of time later.

[Spacefur]

Hello, Sugar here! I'm the background artist/co-writer/coach of Spacefur Wee works nightshifts so I'll be answering you today.

Managing a team of creators can be difficult. I have seen a number of freeware VN teams part ways before they finish a project, or even before they release a demo. Think carefully about how you will deal with conflicts.

This is actually not our first project! See Greystone Manor, our very first VN, which is now in hiatus hell because the size of the project was unmanageable. And we're meatspace friends.
I'm in charge of the backgrounds (will post an example soon), but we're considering hiring another artist for the sprites and CGs because it'll probably minimizes conflicts compared to including a third unpaid party.

I recommend writing with at least one ending or key scene in mind. In other words, think of compelling ways in which your story could end. Or think of spectacular moments which could occur -- battles, chase scenes, confessions, and so on. Afterwards, let your story build up to this important scene.

We do have a rough outline already, with all key scenes and endings planned.

Sometimes it's a good idea to create a story which is a small part of a larger universe. In other words, don't write about the entire continent of a fantasy story, but focus on the events which happen in a single village.

Wee and I are both professionally published writers, leave it to us!

The subject line of your forum post indicates that your story focuses on girl x girl relationships. Will all of the story-relevant relationships involve Lucia?

Nope! Lots of the story deals with the relationships between the crew members. I can't tell you much more without spoiling part of the plot, though.

Are there any relationships between non-playable characters which are important to the tale you are telling?

Yes! Again, no spoilers

I agree with the above poster, the most important thing to do ASAP is to go read some tutorials on outlining and outline your game with a detailed summary down to each day/scene/whatever. Given that its more of a dating sim it doesnt have to be an action adventure story but having a detailed outline will save a lot of time later.

The story is already almost fully planned, we just need to tweak a few things here and there and flesh it out.

Thank you both for your interest and questions

[Spacefur]

Wee speaking :
I've updated the FAQ to correct some misconceptions about the project that seem to have arised. Thanks to both of you for your concern.

So, in any case, what do you people think of the premise or the concept art ? There isn't a lot to show yet (we'll probably post the backgrounds at some point to keep you updated and show progress) but we're hoping it's promising enough to catch people's interest and maybe attract artists. Sugar and me are doing it pro bono, but we'll pay our contributors (we're currently looking for people on a few websites )

Thanks for reading, peeps !

[Spacefur]

Hello, Sugar here! Here's a small sample of the backgrounds I'm currently working on




We've started doing the backgrounds in 950x634 because that was the resolution of Tyranobuilder. But in fact we're going to do it in Ren'Py after all. Do you think we can keep 950x634 or should we revert to 800x600 (or 1024x768) ?

950x634 doesn't even seem to be 16:9 as I originally thought, it's apparently completely arbitrary.

[Spacefur]

Updated with new concept arts:

Hope you like them

[Spacefur]

Sugar here! Some steady progress done: the prologue's writing is done!

We also probably now have both a CG artist and a sprite artist so that's great In the meanwhile, we just need to get some placeholders and we'll soon be able to release a demo. Pretty excited about it!

I've wrote the first scene of Xiaodan's route already, it's going smoothly for now.

[Spacefur]

Backgrounds are hell and I still have to do a LOT of work on that one... but I'm still pretty happy with how it's turning out.

[Spacefur]

Hello again, Sugar here!

We now have a sprite artist, welcome aboard MadameAzure!

I've also finished another background picture.

On the writing side, I'm proud to announce we passed the 10000 words milestone! It's not a lot but considering both writers work full time, I'm still pretty proud of us

So yeah, slow but steady progress!

[Spacefur]

OK I'm incredibly excited to show you the first sketches of the amazing art Azure did for us:

It's amazing to see our characters come to life like that

[Spacefur]

Another background done! Might tweak a few things here and there later, but for now I'm happy with it.

[Spacefur]

Just letting you know that we now have a tumblr!

And that we have a first sketch for Indrani!

[KittyWills]

I am so behind this concept! Holy Cats! Space scifi and fur, two of my favorite things. I'll most certainly be following you guys for this one. =D

[Wee]

I am so behind this concept! Holy Cats! Space scifi and fur, two of my favorite things. I'll most certainly be following you guys for this one. =D

You have no idea how motivating it is to read this. Thank you so very much.

Sugar is hard at work on the backgrounds (and she HATES doing backgrounds, that's saying something about our motivation). I think there are only one or two left until we can release a crude demo of the prologue without any copyright-infringing assets (up until now we had a working demo for internal use, filled with screenshots from all over the place. Not releasable.)