TC Kain+ [Sci fi] [Poltics] [War]

[sura_tc]

Website (Intro and download)

Hello,

TC Kain+ is an evolved form of my previous WIP VN called TC Kain which has a thread here.

This VN is a little different from others. It has no element of anime. It is not about relationships. It is about war and politics as well as life and death based on a sci-fi world I've created. I've built this world based on year 9599 and wrote extensive lore to enrich the world.

The title is Two Clusters Kain arc plus or, in short, TC Kain+.




Story

There are four main characters. Two are immediately introduced. Two others are introduced much later.
Kain and Suu who are introduced at the beginning take most screentime.

Kain hails from a humble beginning. As an ex-journalist working for a magazine company on Moon, he joins Sol navy just to get away from his financial hardships casued by severe recession. His goal, initially, is simply to feed himself. But he soons finds himself heavily engulfed in war, politics, and women.

Suu hails from a strong family. She has powerful parent and background. Having deep respect, almost to a point of being overly zealous, toward his father, she volunteers to join Sol navy to aid her father in achieving his dream. However, she soon finds that the world outside of sheltered life isn't what she thought it'd be.

Third character, Juron, is introduced in chapter 6.

Forth, and final, character, Magenta is introduced in chapter 8.

This VN portrays their lives.




Few ingame screenshots









Art

This VN uses exclusively CG (Computer Grahpics). I use Blender.
However, due to large amount of cast, I also use stock CG assets that I purchased. You can generally tell the different on the screen from stock assets and mine unfortunately. Over time, I hope to replace them with my own. But modelling clothes, humanoid figures, and such take a loooong time.

Therefore, not all characters are made in Blender and some are from stock assets.

VN and its arts are inseparable. Though, in my case, it's CG art.

For an example, on a screne.

Before render



After a quick, simple, test render



Full render before being fed into GIMP for post processing



Tactical mini space battle

A major improvement from my previous TC Kain is an addition of mini space battles. This is the reason I decided to import my VN to Unity. There is a test battle feature where you can just try the mini game. There will be more test battles added in the future.

From chapter 8 and onward, there will be story related space battles.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RA_C5TgB12w


Thank you

[gekiganwing]

An art aesthetic can be used to convey the themes and tone of a story. (Though sometimes creators use art styles which are deliberately inappropriate.) Based on the graphics of TC Kain+, I would guess that its tone will be somewhat dry, muted science fiction. I don't expect that it will include magic, gore, organic technology, or non-humanoid aliens.

Also, please be careful with the scope of your story. Can you commit years of time and effort into writing it? Coding and playtesting space battles also requires quite a bit of work. Keep in mind that many smaller-scale VNs have remained unfinished. If necessary, sell the final version of TC Kain+ as an indie game. That might help you justify dedicating quite a bit of resources into finishing your project.

It is not about relationships.

In a story about war and politics, I expect that fictional characters will have allies, coworkers, enemies, and so on. I assume that most of your characters will interact with other people, regardless of whether they like, respect, or dislike each other.

It has no element of anime.

I like a variety of entertainment, and I try to appreciate differences within genres and media formats. Part of that is my inner fanboy who says things like "Comics can be something other than funny animals and G-rated superheroes!" and "Video games don't have to be defined as press A to jump, press B to shoot!"

For what it's worth, a number of all-CG anime films have been made. Several were discussed in a Mike Toole column from August 2012. (The only one mentioned in the article that I've seen was Oblivion Island. In my opinion, it would have been better without a realistic human main character...)

[sura_tc]

Ver 0.2.2c has been released. (The link leads to download)

Ver 0.2.2c

1. Chapter 4 has been imported. While at it, I've re-rendered character images for some characters, replacing stock assets I used previously.

2. A new test battle, defensive battle, has been added.

An art aesthetic can be used to convey the themes and tone of a story. (Though sometimes creators use art styles which are deliberately inappropriate.) Based on the graphics of TC Kain+, I would guess that its tone will be somewhat dry, muted science fiction. I don't expect that it will include magic, gore, organic technology, or non-humanoid aliens.

Also, please be careful with the scope of your story. Can you commit years of time and effort into writing it? Coding and playtesting space battles also requires quite a bit of work. Keep in mind that many smaller-scale VNs have remained unfinished. If necessary, sell the final version of TC Kain+ as an indie game. That might help you justify dedicating quite a bit of resources into finishing your project.

In a story about war and politics, I expect that fictional characters will have allies, coworkers, enemies, and so on. I assume that most of your characters will interact with other people, regardless of whether they like, respect, or dislike each other.

I like a variety of entertainment, and I try to appreciate differences within genres and media formats. Part of that is my inner fanboy who says things like "Comics can be something other than funny animals and G-rated superheroes!" and "Video games don't have to be defined as press A to jump, press B to shoot!"

For what it's worth, a number of all-CG anime films have been made. Several were discussed in a Mike Toole column from August 2012. (The only one mentioned in the article that I've seen was Oblivion Island. In my opinion, it would have been better without a realistic human main character...)

Scope of story is outside of my control. I've simply taken an arc of stories I've written and they are stories I've been writing for decades. (25ish years so far, I think)

I think you asked me about commitment before in my previous thread. I hit slumps from time to time but seeing I've committed my entire life to my stories, I don't think it matters at this point. What's stopping me is time constraints and hitting walls due to lack of skills in 3D.

There are reasons why there is no anime element. A major, prime, reason is that anime elements are unfitting for the story. That's first and foremost reason.

[sura_tc]

Ver 0.2.5a has been released. (The link leads to download)

Ver 0.2.5a is out.

Changes since.

1. Chapter 5 & 6 have been imported.

2. Chapter 7 is complete.

[sura_tc]

Ver 0.2.6 has been released. (The link leads to download)

1. Chapter 8 has been completed. This chapter includes the first story related space battle.

2. Most of stock asset characters have been replaced with characters modelled in Blender.

[sura_tc]

TC Kain plus version 0.3.1a has been released.

1. Chapter 9 has been completed.

2. Main screen has been reworked to secure space for planned 20 episodes.

3. New main screen BGM has been selected.

4. I now rely on far less stock assets now. Over 90% of assets are my works from ground up. (BGM excluded).