Lemma Soft Forums

Hello, everyone. I'm new to Lemma Soft Forums (and forums in general; help) so bear with me here.

I'm writing a visual novel about a young woman named Jui Belov who is working a stressful dead-end job as a waitress in a roadside diner. The opening sees her awaken to an anxious dread of going to work, the slog of having to dress professionally and wear makeup, and drive in a car she doesn't want and can't afford. She's stuck in a loop.

After a good amount of verbal abuse and dealing with false accusations of shirking her work, she finally snaps, hitting one of the patrons. In horror of what she has done, she flees to the outside and begins to walk, her mind swimming in despair. Only then does she realize how lost she's become. This is the story of her adventure in the wilderness, finding her way home and perhaps realizing she doesn't want to go home.

She meets the little boy Jax who lives with his parents in a cabin in the woods. He's always playing make-belive on a dragon-slaying quest of monumental import. His parents, Krista and Toby, also have their own reasons for retreating so far from town though for the meantime seem content to help Jui start out on her new life of independence.
Jui will meet a handful of unique characters that the player can talk to with multiple dialogue options for different results. Most options will not affect the ending the player receives. There will only be a single route, no romantic options, and only three endings planned.

The game is aimed to be between 80,000 - 120,000 words. [Current count: 20,000]

There will be minor instances of traditional (non-puppetted) animation for mouth movement during dialogue and facial expressions.

Also of note, this game will feature some amount of context-appropriate nonsexual nudity (Jui only took one set of clothing into the woods, after all!). I did not feel that this warrants posting in the "Adult" section as it is inconsequential to the overall story but is important to Jui's character growth of accepting others and accepting herself. I will not be posting any nudity here on Lemma Soft Forums at all. If this is still not okay and needs to be moved to "Adult", someone let me know and I'll take the appropriate action.
I'm an animator and specialize in character design and have a "survivor's knowledge" of Python as a hobby. I also have been writing since forever and want to finally put something significant down. All these skills can lead to a full, well-polished visual novel.

What I *can't* do is background art (well, I can but I need lots more practice). UI design and music are other things I need done, but I have sources for help on those.
Ms. Jui Belov; wilderness clothes


I'm doing my best to get this done. It's been in production since April, 2017 and going strong.
Let me know your thoughts, first-impressions, general level of interest, whatever. I'm mostly posting to get my feet wet in the community. I have no idea what I'm doing (online, leastwise!) and the best way to learn is to jump in somewhere.

First, I like your cartoonish drawings. Were you influenced by any specific series or illustrators?

GlitchyReal wrote: ↑Sun Jun 09, 2019 10:49 pm After a good amount of verbal abuse and dealing with false accusations of shirking her work, she finally snaps, hitting one of the patrons. In horror of what she has done, she flees to the outside and begins to walk, her mind swimming in despair. Only then does she realize how lost she's become. This is the story of her adventure in the wilderness, finding her way home and perhaps realizing she doesn't want to go home. ... Jui will meet a handful of unique characters that the player can talk to with multiple dialogue options for different results. Most options will not affect the ending the player receives. There will only be a single route, no romantic options, and only three endings planned.

I like this premise. It seems to be a story of self-discovery / self-improvement, with a conflict of woman versus self. I think that having little to no romance is also a good point of difference.

The story reminds me of a movie from a few years ago called Wild. Don't worry too much about this. Just make sure that your story has enough points of difference.