Undeclared: Higher Education [College, Romance, Comedy][BXG]

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JackZiolkowski
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Undeclared: Higher Education [College, Romance, Comedy][BXG]

#1 Post by JackZiolkowski »

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Surrounded by strip malls and cornfields, Swanson Ohio is your typical midwestern college town. Around 18,000 students live the American educational dream, full of sleep deprivation, alcohol, and crippling debt. It’s no Harvard, but if you’re looking for a standard reasonable degree at standard unreasonable rates then you could certainly do worse for yourself then Swanson State University. Caught up in the usual highschool-college-job routine, Owen Takeda just kind of ended up in SSU. Like many college freshman he has no idea what he wants to do, what his major is going to be, or what exactly he’s even supposed to be doing at any given moment. Not that he would let something so insubstantial slow him down, after all things usually turn out alright and he is reasonably sure he’ll figure it out eventually. Four years is plenty of time for life to work itself out, right? And so starts out stalwart hero, in the back of his parents van, driving down to start a new chapter of his life, semi confident, semi capable, and completely clueless. What could possibly go wrong?
Undeclared: Higher Education is a slice of life college romance featuring three gorgeous girls to pursue, each with complicated stories filled with meaningful choice. Each of the several endings will be dependent on your choices (for better or worse) and will always keep you guessing with curve-balls, twists, and turns of all kinds. College tends to take you by surprise after all, and the world of Undeclared will do the very same. Here is a quick look at our eligible heroines:

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Grace is the most beautiful force of nature that's ever crossed Owen's path. An accomplished musician and first class athlete, she makes excellence seem effortless. When comparing a girl like her to a guy like our hero, you could be forgiven for not even thinking that they are in the same species let alone class. And yet, somehow, they have both ended up in the same entrepreneurship lecture. Even more incredibly, she seems to sincerely enjoy talking to him. Will Owen screw up this once in a lifetime opportunity? It seems entirely likely, but he has already beaten the odds twice...



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Our next heroine is a hostile, standoffish loner who has eyes that most people would describe as 'unnerving', although the phrase 'terrifying' is more accurate. Where most people are sent running with one well placed glare, Owen Takeda seems completely unaffected by her evil eye. This wouldn't be a huge problem, but to her infinite dismay she ends up as Owen's lab partner. Now she has to survive a class partnered up with someone scientifically designed to annoy her. Good luck.



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Finally there’s Sophia Mendez, the excitable theater major who is easy to talk to and difficult to hate. Endlessly friendly, this Shakespeare buff is always ready for a lengthy, complicated, and completely one sided conversation about a very specific character from a play you read once in high school. For hours. Sure she is eccentric, but she is a great friend and one of the few people our oh-so-slightly socially awkward protagonist feels comfortable talking to. In the same learning community, they may end up getting closer then either of them expect.



And so we set the scene for Undeclared, a story about self discovery, romance, and midterms. There's plenty more to talk about, from classmates to professors, as well as the town it's self. But I would like to hear your questions. To start with:
-What are your opinions on the girls?
-What would you like to hear about next?
-How does all of this (writing, artwork etc) compare to other similar projects in your estimation?
Of course those are just my questions for you, I am primed and ready to answer your every quandry as well. If you have a question, take a look see in the comments to find out if it has been answered, otherwise I will be sure to update this section with more info as you guys request it. Thank you for your interest in our project!

Here are some relevant links for you:
Kickstarter Trailer-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qklcfb4wRJQ
Musical Sampler Platter- https://soundcloud.com/user-342673711
lowkey we've got a kickstarter but the fuzz won't let us leave a link down here without a demo. You're going to need to look for it but it's worth it fam


Sincerely,
Jack Ziolkowski, Meilee Chao, and the entire Productions Productions Productions team.
prodsprodsprods@gmail.com
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Last edited by JackZiolkowski on Sat Nov 11, 2017 4:18 pm, edited 2 times in total.

JackZiolkowski
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Re: Undeclared: Higher Education [College, Romance, Comedy][BXG]

#2 Post by JackZiolkowski »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qklcfb4wRJQ
We have a trailer as well, here for your perusal.

gekiganwing
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Re: Undeclared: Higher Education [College, Romance, Comedy][BXG]

#3 Post by gekiganwing »

It looks like your Kickstarter is starting off well. I take it that you have already done research on both successful and failed crowdfunding creative projects. I recommend continuing to learn more about this topic. Take notes on Kickstarted games, comics, etc., no matter whether they became internet famous, had trouble finding an audience, struggled after reaching their goal, or changed directions halfway through development.
JackZiolkowski wrote: Thu Oct 26, 2017 9:34 am What are your opinions on the girls?
I can understand a person seeing Grace from a distance and thinking that she is perfect. If a person excels in music and athletics, then it might seem like they have it all together. That said, I think it would be best to portray Grace as an ordinary, flawed person. Here are a couple reasons why:

1. When a character is perfect, then it's difficult to create conflict. However, a character with flaws can grow and change.
2. I've known at least two people in real life who seemed to have it all together. Not long afterward, I learned that one of them dealt with depression, and one had already experienced a divorce.

Thinking about Rachel... it seems that she has trouble trusting or relating to other people. What has she experienced? What does she want to achieve? Who is she when she's alone, with family, or with a small group of friends?
JackZiolkowski wrote: Thu Oct 26, 2017 9:34 amThere's plenty more to talk about, from classmates to professors, as well as the town itself.
I'd like to know about Owen, the protagonist. Does he have an established personality? Does the reader determine what sort of person he is through choices, or perhaps statistics-building? Is he a blank slate character?

If your story has compelling support characters, that's a plus. Friends, family, and mentors can all contribute to the story in meaningful ways.

Finally, I want to know details about Swanson State University and the area around it. (I attended a college which was fascinating. The buildings had been built decades apart, but all existed in one city block. Many people I met there knew the LCMS Lutheran church much better than I did, and had opinions about it. Additionally, the college was within a mile of five different Chicagoland neighborhoods, ranging from quite wealthy to quite poor.)

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Re: Undeclared: Higher Education [College, Romance, Comedy][BXG]

#4 Post by JackZiolkowski »

Sorry about the long radio silence friend, I've been trying to juggle a dozen diffrent social media accounts, emails, all kinds of odds and ends as we move toward the end of our Kickstarter campaign. Lemmasoft just slipped my mind until now, shouldn't happen again. Lets get down to the questions.
gekiganwing wrote: Fri Nov 03, 2017 11:30 pm Thinking about Rachel... it seems that she has trouble trusting or relating to other people. What has she experienced? What does she want to achieve? Who is she when she's alone, with family, or with a small group of friends?
The character bios are more like impressions then biography, as neither Owen nor the player actually knows any of the girls before the story starts. A lot of that info will be revealed in game as the player gets to know the girls on a more personal level, so I don't want to spoil too much. Rest assured that these questions have answers, which might surprise you. Also keep in mind that Grace is probably not as perfect as she might seem at first glance.
gekiganwing wrote: Fri Nov 03, 2017 11:30 pm I'd like to know about Owen, the protagonist. Does he have an established personality? Does the reader determine what sort of person he is through choices, or perhaps statistics-building? Is he a blank slate character?
Owen is not a blank slate in the sense of a Gordon Freeman/Issac Clarke "literal blank slate for the player to assign character to" kind of deal. He is a blank slate in that he has led a fairly unexciting, sheltered suburban life and really hasn't developed much of a sense of self yet. He doesn't really know who he is, what is important to him, what he wants to do with his life etc. He does have a personality, opinions, values all of that; but he couldn't accurately define them for himself let alone someone else doing it for him. Over his first year of college, with the help of various people he meets including but not limited to the girls, he will start to put the answers together for himself. The conclusions he reaches may be different depending on the choices you make, and the endings may lead him to become all kinds of different people; all of whom are still identifiably Owen but also fundamentally different from each other. Much like the girls, you will come to know him as you play, and I wouldn't want to reveal too much.
gekiganwing wrote: Fri Nov 03, 2017 11:30 pm If your story has compelling support characters, that's a plus. Friends, family, and mentors can all contribute to the story in meaningful ways.
We do, it is, and they will. Rest assured.
gekiganwing wrote: Fri Nov 03, 2017 11:30 pm Finally, I want to know details about Swanson State University and the area around it. (I attended a college which was fascinating. The buildings had been built decades apart, but all existed in one city block. Many people I met there knew the LCMS Lutheran church much better than I did, and had opinions about it. Additionally, the college was within a mile of five different Chicagoland neighborhoods, ranging from quite wealthy to quite poor.)
Now Swanson I can talk about in a bit more detail. The actual pictures are from Ohio University, but the university is mostly based on Bowling Green State University, an odd little college I spent a memorable year attending. It's maybe 20 minuets from Toledo, but surrounded mostly by smalltown American wasteland. Corn fields, little communities of rural folk, big stretches of nothing but trees; and then BAM, a college. Students ranged from locals to people from far off parts of Ohio to international students.

The actual town of Bowling Green was basically stuck to the side of the college and everyone who lived there was in some way linked to it. It was a pretty modern place to, which was a real contrast to the surrounding towns. There was a sizeable student population, lots of interesting buildings, all just kind of sitting in a field off the highway. Undeclared is not autobiographical, Owen isn't much like I was back then and the girls arn't really based on anyone I knew. Swanson is essentially BGSU as I remember it from a few years back. It was very different from the kind of college you attended, but I think you'll find it just as interesting.

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Re: Undeclared: Higher Education [College, Romance, Comedy][BXG]

#5 Post by papillon »

That's against Wikipedia's rules, unfortunately. (notability, etc).

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