Welcome to a world where Martial Arts overlap with The Nine Arts, where the Ancient Powers overlap with Pop Culture. Welcome to the world of...
A bit of history:
On 1999 I created a parodic story combining characters from the King Of Fighters universe with artists from the local scene. The main idea was that each character would have special powers, derived not from chi or whatever you please, but from an uncanny mastery of their preferred craft (for instance,the KoW equivalent of the Bogard Brothers were a couple of radio jockey brothers with cassette tape-based powers).
The story covered the finale of the '98 arc (parallel to Kof '97) and the beginning of the '99 tournament (based off KoF '99), and ended up as a poorly drawn limited three-issue comic series, of which only the first issue was drawn and hand delivered to most of the parodied people. The reception was unthoughtly good (as nobody took offense and actually found it funny).
Timeskip
Many years have passed. Most of the people parodied on KoW abandoned arts, reproduced, vanished or all of the above at once. So I thought: if the KoW was held right now, who would still be there to answer the call?
The answer is: not many.
So I wrote a story where key characters of the series meet again after many years, off-tournament, and face a threat from the past. Characters of yore reappear and others make cameos. I thought, "hey, I never made the KoW fighting game I wanted to do, I could make a VN out of this". The rest, as they say, is history.
When this game is finished, I'll do pretty much what I did with the comic: distribute a dozen copies among my friends and forget about it. I know this is my first game and as such, it's a wretched spawn: therefore I will not expect eternal glory or recognition. But if my friends play it and like it, I'd consider the effort well paid.
The Game:
If you're not already bored out of your brains, please remember before continuing that anything here is subject to change throughout the development (although I'm a lazy bum that probably will leave everything as it is).
Synopsis
Years after the last KoW, the champions meet for a little slice-of-life action. But soon all pretense of normalcy falls apart, as an old enemy reappears.
Will the heroes unravel the mystery of That Person's return? Will they stop That Person before it's too late? Or will Someone Else do it?
Planned Features
> Two routes and an unlockable third route, four endings for each.*
> A gallery with twenty-five unlockable scenes. ‡
> A comprehensive "I'm a lazy worm" walkthrough to all endings and images.*
> Changing menu images depending on the completed routes.†
Screenshots
1) Menu/GUI
2) Gameplay screens:
Characters
Protagonists: These two will only be shown as side images inside of the text box (‡), although you'll see their full sprites by playing each other's route. You can select any of them, but once both Not-Bad-Endings are reached, the third protagonist's route will be automatically selected. You'll be able to select any route for replay once you clear this one.
Enemies and Allies: they will appear as sprites on screen.
Here are some rough sketches of some of the characters (not definitive art):
Assets
Writer/Programmer/Sprite Art: Yours Truly
BG Art (‖): Uncle Mugen, TropicalMonsoon and Masato
GUI extras: Vita-chi Sozaikan
Sfx: PDSounds, Vita-chi Sozaikan, 1) THE MATCH-MAKERS
Music: Amabine, Vita-chi Sozaikan, OST(§) by Iori Murasawa
Game Engine: Ren'Py
As you can see, I'll be needing a boatload of help just so this project gets off the ground.
Please tell me what you think, what you see it fails, or anything else.
______________NOTES:____________________
*= Solved/done.
†= Further research is needed.
‡= I have no idea where to start.
§= Work in progress.
‖= Completed