My team is making a visual novel about a single father's journey as he heals from years of abuse and neglect. It touches on extreme poverty, prostitution, drug addiction, alcohol abuse, suicide, anxiety, emotional manipulation, internalized ableism, and sexual assault. Finn gets worse before getting better and, even if it's got cute family moments sprinkled throughout, it's pretty stressful. Maybe it's because I'm dredging up a lot of shitty memories to write this, but it's made me take more than a few depression naps.
What we're really hoping for, by posting this, is to get some feedback from the VN community. We want to know what your thoughts are regarding the story premise, and what you'd like to see.
We also wanna stress that even though this is gonna be an adult title with a small handful of sex scenes, the sex is much less of the lewd variety and more of the emotional growth kind.
(You might recognize the premise and characters from our super old Ideas thread, back when we were using the name Daddy Lies. We decided to rebrand because A) It's honestly a pretty lame title and B) People keep associating it with Dream Daddy and that's... Undesirable. We, uh, still need to get a new logo made for it.)
Anyways, we actually released our demo to Itch.io on the 1st.
Moving on...
. When Finn was eighteen, he knew exactly where he was heading in life. He was slated to graduate high school as valedictorian, attend a prestigious school to study law on scholarship, walk away with a Masters, and become a politician that represented Ohio in the US Senate. It didn't quite line up with his dreams of being a star pianist in the New York Philharmonic, but it was what his father wanted.
It's difficult to do either of those when your father casts you out onto the street for kissing another boy, though; it didn't take long for both of their dreams to crumble away.
Now, at twenty-four, Finn has no vision of his future. All Finn has time to do is work, take care of his daughter, work more, and leave work to go to more work. And, when it isn't enough to keep a roof over Ava's head and food in her belly, he works even further into the night with three glasses of Cabernet in his system and the scent of shame clinging to the sheets.
He can't remember the last time he slept a full eight hours, or even ate a proper meal. He can no longer recall when he last made it through an entire day without a panic attack. In the back of his mind he knows that this is no way to live, but he refuses to complain or torment himself with ideas of what could have been. As far as he's concerned, just the fact that he and Ava are finally away from him is finally something to thank his stars for.
Until Koloa makes it his mission to teach Finn what it means to finally live.
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If you were to ask him, Finn would claim he has no hobbies to waste time on - unless laundry counts. Whenever he gets a moment to breathe, however, he likes to sit down with a book or teach Ava how to read.
"I… Have a couple of demons I have yet to shake. I was allowing them to get to me, and that wasn't fair to you. I'm sorry."
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Ava's hobbies include creating the many pieces of art that adorn their fridge, helping (or trying to help) Finn with household chores, and teaching her teddy how to draw.
"Daddy, teddy's hungry."
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At first glance, he's a pretty confident dude with a winning smile that is a passionate supporter of pineapple and barbecue sauce on pizza.
Thanks to twenty-four hour shifts at the department, Koloa has a fair amount of spare time that he dedicates to working out, watching esports, and contributing to the internet's library of memes.
"Babe, if you're one of those people who don't eat pizza crusts, we're gonna have a problem."
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Progress
Words: 200k
Art: 30 backgrounds, 8 character sprites, 5 CGs
OST: 8 tracks
Planned
Words: 200k+-
Endings: 1 bad, 1 good, 1 true
Commercial?: Yes
Routes: Because there is only one love interest with a linear storyline, there is technically only one route. However, there are multiple endings so the way you experience the story can change depending on the choices you make.
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Team
Writer: TheFriendlySenpai
Character Artist: Shoko
Background Artist: [http://vui-huynh.deviantart.com/]Vui-Huynh[/url]
Editor: Lunaterra
GUI/Logo Artist: ds sans
Programming Asst.: naomimyselfandi
Composer: Nyanime, Noyemi K, Alyx
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Extras
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