Chronotopia: Second Skin [dark fairytale][GxG/GxB] New KS & new demo!

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philip
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Re: Chronotopia: Second Skin [dark fairytale][GxG/GxB] New KS & new demo!

#31 Post by philip »

Very nice demo . . . attractive art and interesting storyline . . . look forward to seeing and reading the rest!

(sure seems to be taking a loooong time though!)

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Re: Chronotopia: Second Skin [dark fairytale][GxG/GxB] New KS & new demo!

#32 Post by Helianthus »

philip wrote: Wed Aug 01, 2018 8:29 pm Very nice demo . . . attractive art and interesting storyline . . . look forward to seeing and reading the rest!
Thank you very much, I’m glad you enjoyed Chronotopia :3. Just in case, I want to mention that if you’re a backer, you actually have access to half of the first route as well :D .
philip wrote: Wed Aug 01, 2018 8:29 pmsure seems to be taking a loooong time though!
Unfortunately we’ve had quite a few issues with our main artist. As talented as she was, she was also excruciatingly slow, which quickly put us in a bind with months of delay :( . If you follow our Kickstarter updates (we make a point of honor to be regular there), you probably already know that I hired an assistant to help her out and speed up the process a few months later. But in the end, the main artist was unable to keep up the pace so we reluctantly had to let her go earlier this year. The new character art team is much quicker so I have high hope to be able to finally finish this project in a more timely fashion!

But, to our defence, Chronotopia: Second Skin is quite a massive game too! We’re currently sitting at 200 000 words and I still have a few endings to write before the script is complete (not counting the asides like the archives). Which might also explain why it’s taking so long despite our best effort to be as fast as possible! That won’t prevent us from doing our best though~ :wink:
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Re: Chronotopia: Second Skin [dark fairytale][GxG/GxB] New KS & new demo!

#33 Post by philip »

@Helianthus-

Thanks for taking time to respond; I wasn't being critical . . . just anxious to see MORE!

From the problems you've described, it reminds me of our family motto: "nothing is ever easy!"

Keep up the good work!

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Re: Chronotopia: Second Skin [dark fairytale][GxG/GxB] New KS & new demo!

#34 Post by Helianthus »

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Welcome to the world of fairytales!
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Wanna know what Chronotopia: Second Skin is about? This series of updates is for you! In the following weeks I’m going to spotlight various elements of interest and make updates on the Kickstarter to give you a glimpse of what to expect in our game. Let’s start with a transcription of the first one and the obvious focus: fairytales~
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Indeed, I’m fascinated by the subject and I’m especially fond of making dark rewriting of tales that have been forgotten. The starting point of Chronotopiawas exactly that: I had not done one in a while so I went to choose a new tale for me to play with. To that goal, I put my books collection into good use and read one that I especially like which is a compilation of all the many folkloric and literary variations of Perrault’s tales. Since it’s such a shame that so few people know those variations, I really wanted to explore them all…at the same time. So I quickly came with the idea of a heroine who would have to face adversity and each of her misfortunes would be a route illustrating a lesser-known version of a tale. My choice settled on Donkeyskin because it was the one that had the most interesting variations. Plus, it allowed me to easily pick up elements from other tales that are similar: Cinderella, Griselidis, Sleeping Beauty, the Fairies, and so many more. That’s how Chronotopia became a tribute to all those forgotten fairytales with my own personal touch!
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We got a few stained-glass illustrations by Melowbee to better portray the fairytale feeling~
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Since most people haven’t heard of them (they’re forgotten for a reason), it has always been my desire to share that heritage. After all, stories are made to be transmitted and it was the perfect opportunity to do so! That’s why we included in-games archives in Chronotopia: when you play a part of the story that is heavily inspired by an old tale, a file unlocks in the archives menu to explore that reference in more details. You can completely ignore them and just go along with the flow or read them to gain a different perspective on the main story. That way you can compare Chronotopia to the original versions and see what I added or changed in the story to fit my own universe. Plus you get to discover interesting variations of best known fairytales (Beauty and the Beast, Little Red Riding Hoood or Little Thumb, to name a few). I think fans like me will appreciate the references and the others will hopefully learn a lot along the way!
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But wait, we went the extra mile with the idea: it’s also a reward you can get if you pledge at the Digital Pack tier! With 30€ you get a booklet that will include an extended version of the game’s archives as there’s only so much you can fit on a screen. If you want a full summary of all those forgotten tales, some of which aren’t even available in English (I’m essentially working with French folklore), then you might be interested in that reward. We were not kidding about Chronotopia being a tribute!
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philip wrote: Thu Aug 02, 2018 10:13 amThanks for taking time to respond; I wasn't being critical . . . just anxious to see MORE!
Oh, but I didn’t take it badly! I just think that people deserve to know what’s going on so I like being as transparent as possible è__é. But thank you very much <3 The wait is almost over this time!
To be honest, I would rather release the routes to backers as we finish them to reduce the wait but it seems that the majority would rather get the full game at once, ahah.
philip wrote: Thu Aug 02, 2018 10:13 amFrom the problems you've described, it reminds me of our family motto: "nothing is ever easy!"
Truer words have never been spoken…
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Re: Chronotopia: Second Skin [dark fairytale][GxG/GxB] New KS & new demo!

#35 Post by Zelan »

I agree with you that fairy tales and folklore are so, so fascinating! The archives seem like a really cool portion of the game, I'm excited to see them. ^_^

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Re: Chronotopia: Second Skin [dark fairytale][GxG/GxB] New KS & new demo!

#36 Post by Helianthus »

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We’re already 20% funded, let’s keep at it, folks!
In the previous update I talked about fairytales, now it’s high time to introduce the main heroine: princess Kionna.
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Naturally it’s the first character I came up with while drafting Chronotopia: Second Skin. But really it’s more of a tandem with her mother because her death is the major event that sets the story in motion. Many details bothered me in Perrault’s version of Donkeyskin, one of them being how the text subtly implies that the late queen is vain. But she is clearly an important character otherwise she wouldn’t have such an impact after her passing. So diminishing her didn’t strike me as a good idea, instead I wanted a strong ruler that would be badass and truly missed.
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Kionna's in-game sprite, by Anako. She has plenty of expressions, poses and outfits!
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Another issue I had with the original tale is how quick the king is to marry his own daughter under the frivolous pretext that she’s the only one pretty enough to qualify. I have always found that ridiculous: don’t tell me his standards are so high no princess across the whole continent can satisfy him! So I worked on the basis that more than anything he wanted a wife who looked like the previous one. But there was still something off. Changing the skin tone of the queen then seemed obvious: there had always been people of color in the Middle Ages’ society but nobles did care about their estates and arranged marriages so people of color with a lot of power would be way less common in France. If the queen was black, her daughter would be too, which would somewhat explain why the king had a hard time remarrying.
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Choosing Kionna's dress was especially difficult as Anako made so many great propositions! N°2 ended up becoming the mother's design.
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Choosing a black princess has another advantage: it offers a design that’s out of the ordinary. Let’s face it: Disney has been here so we’ve seen every possible variation of a white princess already (blond, dark-haired, red-haired, and so on). And I want my character to be easily identifiable at first glance. The solution seemed perfect to me in every way: story-wise, design-wise, and as a way to offer more diversity.
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And what a journey Kionna will have to go through~
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And that’s how Kionna came to be! She’s princess-y to a fault: haughty, naive, oblivious to the working of the world. But as the only heiress of a great mixed queen, she also have to carry a huge burden as she’s expected to do as well as her mother and still doesn’t really know what she wants. This is both a good way to justify the downfall of the kingdom and to give a motivation to the heroine. That’s also why it’s hard to describe Kionna as she hasn’t fully grown into an adult yet and can change drastically depending on what she experiences. In some routes she can be sweet and caring, in other cruel and paranoïd, sometimes both at the same time. Her journey is what’s going to shape her personallity and, boy, she’d better be prepared for the worst !

What does fate have in store for poor Kionna? Death? Suffering?
Betrayal? Friendship? Romance? Maybe a little bit of everything~

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Zelan wrote: Thu Aug 02, 2018 9:55 pmI agree with you that fairy tales and folklore are so, so fascinating! The archives seem like a really cool portion of the game, I'm excited to see them. ^_^
Thanks, I’m glad to see I’m not the only one who’s a fan of fairy tales :3. I really wanted to share what I like about them, hence the archives! There are a few ones in the new demo so don’t hesitate to try it out and leave me feedbacks~ I especially wanna know if they’re readable and interesting enough :lol: .
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