Lads in Distress [GxB][Otome|Fairy Tale|Fantasy] NEW DEMO

[Windchimes]

[GxB] Otome, Fantasy, Fairy Tales, Comedy, Romance

Development Blog: http://ladsindistress.tumblr.com/


NEW DEMO IS NOW RELEASED!





Itch.io (Windows, Mac, Linux)
Mirror: Windows | Mac | Linux

Please note that the Extras buttons are not meant to lead to anywhere, as the Extras screens are not yet completed for the demo.









Characters














Progress

For more detailed updates (and possibly more sneak peeks!), check/follow our tumblr (development blog): http://www.ladsindistress.tumblr.com/
We will post updates here in this thread, of course, but the Tumblr will be the most updated.
I’ll try to remember to update the % in this Progress section as often as possible.

Writing
(Note that the NaNo routes have been mostly, if not completely, rewritten, and each route is now 50k-ish rather than 25k ish)
General Route: 100%
Mer’s Route: 100%
Snow’s Route: 100%
Zel’s Route: 100%
Nicholl's Route: 100%
Ellis's Route: 10%


Character Art
Main Characters: 100%
Side Characters: 15%


CGs
Snow’s Route: 100%
Nicholl’s Route: 100%
Zel’s Route: 90%
Mer's Route: 60%


Chibi CGs
Mer's Route: 75%
Zel's Route: 65%
Snow's Route: 50%
Nicholl's Route: 35%


Backgrounds
All Routes: 80%


GUI
Logo: 100%
Icon: 100%
GUI screens: 80%


Music
General Route: 20%


Team

Writers: Perennial Lily, Windchimes
Character Artist: Elzee, Greenace
Lead CG Artist: Greenace
Guest CG Artists: Alcor etc., csky, Wingzofdarkness
Chibi CG Artist: PlutoParfait
BG Artist: Lesleigh63, csky
GUI and Logo Artist: Alcor etc.
Composer: csky, Nayte the Hermit
Editor: Azuumi
Programmer: Windchimes


Feedback
You don't need to answer all the questions, but we would greatly appreciate any feedback you give!

1. Did you play the NaNoRenO version of LiD? What did you think of it?
2. Any thoughts or comments about the story premise/characters so far?
3. Who is your favorite character at the moment?
4. Which love interest do you think you will pursue first?
5. Any other comments or questions?


Thank you to all of you for reading! Special thanks to those who have been supporting us during NaNo and these couple of months since! Your support means a lot to us and has kept us going all this time!

[Windchimes]

Previews

Backgrounds

[Zelan]

1. Did you play the NaNoRenO version of LiD? What did you think of it?: I haven't played the NaNo version, partially because I like to wait for the full version for a lot of games, and partially because I have such a backlog of VNs (I STILL haven't played all of the NaNo games that I wanted to yet :/). I followed the original NaNo thread pretty closely, although I'm not sure I ever actually posted.
2. Any thoughts or comments about the story premise/characters so far?: Genderbent fairy tale? Count me in. ^_^ I don't have a great idea of all of the characters yet since I haven't played the demo, but I have been reading Dreamgazer's NaNoRenO game show, and I've enjoyed reading them in that project.
3. Who is your favorite character at the moment?: Unnamed Prince, 100%. Quiet bookworm, caught up in rumors, plus those hot glasses. I am most definitely a fan.
4. Which love interest do you think you will pursue first?: Heh, I think I've just answered that question. ^_^ That could change once the next two are fully revealed, though, so... ask me later, I guess?
5. Any other comments or questions?: I'm trying to figure out who Prince Beau might be based on but I'm not getting any ideas... I think I need to brush up on my fairy tales a bit.

[Windchimes]

@Zelan:
Thank you for the comment! <3
Yeah, many of our fans have stated they're waiting on the full version before playing. xD Hopefully, you'll enjoy the final product then!
Oh yes, Dreamgazer's game show was really fun! I'm glad you liked our cast in the show!
Haha, I'm excited to start working on the route for the unnamed prince too!
As for Prince Beau, we won't be revealing him until the sprite is done, but since I've mentioned it on Tumblr already, I can probably give away the fact that he's based off Sleeping Beauty~ (Why is Sleeping Beauty named Beau but not Beauty and the Beast? ...It's a long story. xD An inside joke in the team made the name Beau stick to Sleeping Beauty instead.)
Anyways, thank you again for commenting, and I hope you'll continue to keep up with our updates on this thread! <3

[Windchimes]

Hello, guys! The waiting’s over! After three rounds of voting within the Lads in Distress team, we’ve chosen a name for our newest prince. Say hello to Prince Ellis of Rose Kingdom!





The winners who have submitted the name Ellis are: magikarpcarpet, themaddykinz and justlistentothemelody. Congrats, and thank you for submitting a great name!

[If you submitted the name Ellis but was not tagged or mentioned as a winner, please send us a message. We’ll check our inbox/reblogs again to see if we happened to miss your entry in the flood of entries we got xD]

Thank you so much to everyone for participating! We’ve received a ton of great entries, and it was extremely difficult to make our choices. We hope it was as fun for you guys as it was for us. If you’re disappointed you didn’t win this time, please keep an eye out for more! We will be holding more contests at some point, so you still have a chance to wind up as part of the beta testing team and in the end credits!

Once again, thank you to every single one of you for the support <3 We will be working hard to bring you a high quality game as soon as we can.

[Coren]

MADOKA IS THE PROTAGONIST

I'm in! Looking forward to this one hahaha, especially with its distressed dudes.

[Windchimes]

@Coren:
HAHA Yes, we've had a few comments about Charming looking like Madoka. That was unintended, but a funny coincidence nonetheless xD
Thank you! Hope you'll enjoy it when it's released

[minyan]

Looking forward to seeing the changes made in this expanded version! I did play the nano version and left my comments in that thread, so I'll skip that question. I'm probably most interested in Prince Snow, just because his route was most intriguing in the nano version, but the rewrites might change my opinion, so we'll see.

Good luck you guys!

[yundun63]

I am so excited for this, like almost as excited as I was for update 1.1 of Stardew Valley.


Survey time!

1. Did you play the NaNoRenO version of LiD? What did you think of it? - I started a couple of times, but I never got very far (partly because I like to wait for full versions, and partly because the character I wanted to romance wasn't an option yet.)

2. Any thoughts or comments about the story premise/characters so far? - Have I mentioned how thrilled I am for this? Like I said, I've started a few times and never gotten very far (due to the above reasons) but every character I've met has been interesting and engaging and the story itself just seems really cool!

3. Who is your favorite character at the moment? - Nicholl!!

4. Which love interest do you think you will pursue first? - Probably Prince Ellis, I tend to save the route I'm most excited for (Nicholl's in this case) last and instead start with the other routes in according to my personal ranking from least to most interested.

5. Any other comments or questions? - I remember reading somewhere (maybe on your tumblr?) that you were aiming to release this final version before 2017, is that still true? What's your most current estimate on its release?

[Windchimes]

@minyan:
Hey hey min! Thanks for dropping by to comment <3
Glad to hear you're interested in the expansion! Snow's route actually didn't go through too much rewriting — well, it was mostly like 30k word total of new scenes, and the old scenes from the NaNo version were fixed up but the overall content for those scenes stay the same (if that makes sense...) xD I'll be looking forward to your feedback on the changes after the expansion is out!
Thank you! Good luck to you for your jam project too!

@yundun63:
Oh wow, I love SV and I was super excited for the update so this is super high praise >< Thank you!! Hopefully we won't let our fans down with the final game.
Super glad to hear that you're interested in the story Yeah, Nicholl was supposed to be a secret fourth route but we ran out of time for NaNo >< On the plus side, he gets a full route of his own now in the expansion! It's done being written too
Oh yeah, we mentioned once a long time back that we were aiming for late 2016 or early 2017 release, but it's probably not going to happen. School and work have been hitting our members hard, so we're just getting most of the work done during holidays, which means our pace is a lot slower than expected. Steady progress, but somewhat slower than planned. I'm hesitant to give an estimate on the release date right now, because there are too many unknowns, sorry! Maybe when a proper demo is ready, then I'll give an estimate. We will, however, try our best to get this game out as soon as possible
Thank you again!

[edel]

1. Did you play the NaNoRenO version of LiD? What did you think of it? I actually do remember playing it, and enjoyed it even though it was quite short.

2. Any thoughts or comments about the story premise/characters so far? I like it! I think it has potential and at the very least is cute enough to make me feel warm and fuzzy inside.

3. Who is your favorite character at the moment? Prince Mer

4. Which love interest do you think you will pursue first? Prince Mer lol (Though I am curious about the characters that haven't been revealed yet. Hood in particular because for some reason I just immediately think of Robin Hood.)

5. Any other comments or questions? Art is great! I didn't even know this was getting an extended version, but I'm glad it is :>

[melolee]

1. Did you play the NaNoRenO version of LiD? What did you think of it?

I did not! I just found this thread right now I'll go look for the NaNoRenO version when I have a moment, I can't wait to try it out!

2. Any thoughts or comments about the story premise/characters so far?

I really like it! I'm a little ambivalent about otome games and their execution--there are some that I love, but often the heroine is more passive than my preference. Charming seems proactive though, and I really liked the bit in her bio about seeking an advantageous political match for her kingdom. I also just really like when people play with fairy tales and conventions.

3. Who is your favorite character at the moment?

Hmm...Prince Mer, maybe? I'm partial to the little mermaid and its variations, haha.

4. Which love interest do you think you will pursue first?

Prince Mer

5. Any other comments or questions?

I'm excited!!

[yundun63]

Yeah, Stardew Valley totally rocks! I'm sure your game will totally live up to any and all of my expectations, I have a really good feeling about it. I completely understand your reluctance to give a date though, especially since there is quite a ways to go (what with the sleeping beauty and red riding hood routes to do still)... Especially since I started working full time a few months ago and now have an idea what it's like to live in the real world with real responsibilities, it's certainly very time consuming!

How close are you with the demo? Think it's safe for me to assume that I'll be downloading that before I turn 21 next Summer?


Edit: Posted this before I realized that you never said what story the character Hood would be coming from... I just assumed it would be Red Riding Hood since all the other princes are gender-flipped characters.

[Windchimes]

@edel:
Hello! Thanks for commenting on our thread
Glad to hear you enjoyed the NaNo version! Yeah, it had to be kept really short if we wanted to meet the deadline >< We aren't very satisfied with the quality due to the rushed development process, so here we are, with an extended version of the game!
Haha, you aren't the only one who thinks of Robin Hood when we say Hood Can't reveal too much yet, since we won't announce the new char profiles until their sprites are done, but let's just say there's a little surprise involved in Hood's char compared to the others xD
Thank you again for commenting! Hope you'll enjoy the game when it's out

@melolee:
Hey! Thanks for commenting
Oh, if you want to give the NaNo version a try, you can click on the Lads in Distress banner in my sig. That should take you to the completed thread. Warning, though: It was done in a month for the game jam, so many things were pretty rushed. Hopefully you'll still enjoy it though
Haha, yeah. It's actually what we were thinking of when we first developed this concept — we're tired of passive, weak heroines who just blushes and stutters at everything and has to be protected by the love interests all the time. We want to make Charming badass and powerful — though she does have her own flaws, of course.
Anyways, thanks for the comment! Hope you enjoy the game.

@yundun63:
Haha, thank you so much for the vote of confidence! >< Hopefully, we will live up to the expectations.
Yeah, it's kind of a struggle to find time for VN dev work (especially when all this is just pure hobby, not paid work) when you have so much to do irl. Hopefully progress will pick up a bit during winter break and stuff. xD We'll see how it goes.
We are still missing quite a bit of assets for the demo, but hopefully it'll be out before next summer! Haha
Regarding Hood, I can't give away too much yet since we won't announce his character properly until his sprite is done, but let's just say there's a little surprise for his character compared to other characters xD
Thank you again for the interest and for commenting!

-----------------------------------------

On a different note, we've posted the latest progress report on LiD on Tumblr. You can find it here: http://ladsindistress.tumblr.com/post/1 ... ess-report

If you haven't followed us on Tumblr yet, consider following us, because we post most of our updates there!

I'll be updating the first post in a bit with the new assets and stuff.

Thanks for all the support everyone

[melolee]

Thanks for the tip on where to find your NaNo version!