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Update September 20: Take A Hike! is now complete! You can buy it on itch.io and comment in the completed games thread!

Cheerful slacker Olive thought that taking an outdoor ed. class during her final year of high school would be an easy credit, but the year-end camping trip turns out to be a lot more than she bargained for. When an argument with another classmate spurs the hot-tempered Sage to run off alone into the woods, Olive follows her, hoping to lift her spirits and make sure she’s safe. But the bubbly and energetic Heather has the same idea, and tensions between her and Sage threaten to turn the trip into even more of a disaster than it is already. Olive just wants her classmates to get along, but they seem to disagree on everything—and to make things even worse, they've lost track of how to get back to their campsite! Follow three stressed out teens on a journey full of bickering, mosquitoes, and self-discovery.

All character art below is available for purchase from DejiNyucu.

While her classmates planned out the details of their course schedules with university admissions in mind, Olive was more concerned with what sounded fun and interesting—which is how she ended up here. Her main goal in life is to have a good time, and that includes making sure that the people around her are enjoying themselves too. She’s not sure exactly what’s going on with Heather and Sage, but she hopes she can smooth things over with some jokes and snacks.
Sage has big plans for her future as an engineering major, and she’s a little too determined to be taken seriously. She was all set to have a nice afternoon cooling off with a solo swim in the lake, but somebody wouldn’t leave her alone. Now all she wants to do is get back to the campsite and get this lousy trip over with.
Heather hates dirt, bugs, and the outdoors in general, so her presence in this class is a bit of a mystery. She’s willing to give hiking a try, but she might complain about how much her feet hurt the whole time. She’d much rather be at home watching TV and drinking an iced latte.
Miss Yarrow might not be the most competent teacher around, but she’s determined to be the most entertaining. She and the two remaining students in the class, tactless Basil and laid back Reed, are having their own adventures back at camp while waiting for the girls to return. First step: figuring out what’s for dinner.

Screenshots
Update August 18th: replaced old screenshots with new ones and removed older questions that people have already answered. Stay tuned for upcoming release!

The premise of this is so cute, and I adore Deji's art!

1. Do you think the photographic backgrounds look okay as they are, or would you prefer filters to make them look a bit less realistic?: I think it would look better with a filter. Usually I'm not super picky about what VN backgrounds look like compared to the sprites, and ultimately it wouldn't stop me from getting the game, but the sprites are SO cartoony and the backgrounds are SO realistic in this case that it's jarring.
2. What do you think is a good price for a VN on the shorter side (possibly less than an hour)? Would something like five dollars be okay? I suck at figuring out pricing too lol but that sounds okay! I'd definitely pay that.

Zelan wrote: ↑

Tue Jun 23, 2020 12:35 pm

The premise of this is so cute, and I adore Deji's art!

Cool, thanks for the feedback, Zelan! I hope you enjoy it when I finish it

The premise and art look really cute! I agree with the person above that having a filter on the backgrounds might help it blend in better given the contrast.

Regarding price for a game under an hour, I think anywhere between $3-5 is fine personally.

Update! I've been hard at work on this over the last little while, so I've updated the top post to reflect some of the changes I made. The new screenshots show off the new edited backgrounds as well as the GUI! That little campfire in the corner is a button that brings up the hidden quick menu. And in addition to DejiNyucu's great character art, I'm really excited that there's going to be a lovely CG by Dahlia Wilder, who also worked with me on my last project, The Light at the End of the Ocean. I'm getting close to the final stages on this and planning to release it next month!

Final update: Take A Hike! is now complete and available on itch.io! I've also made a new thread in the completed games section.