[Finished] Signed X [rom-com][GxB][NaNoRenO 2013]

[GlassHeart]

This game now has a new thread, so please post HERE.


Hello! Some may know me for creating Summer found me, some may not. Well, I'm back with a small little NaNoRenO game. Hopefully you won't be disappointed.

For two years I've missed the opportunity of participating in NaNo, but his year, albeit late, I decided to join. I started working on the 13th and made... something.
It's almost complete now, just needs some beta-testing. If you're interested in helping (and preferably have done this before), let me know with an IM ^^

Plot

One day our heroine, Marty (name can be changed), arrives uncharacteristically early to school to find a boy from another class leaving flowers on her desk. She hides before he can see her, not wanting the situation to become awkward.
How will our nutty, hopelessly romantic, manga-loving protagonist deal with the situation?

She will try to recreate classic romantic scenes from her favorite mangas with her not-so-secret admirer, Matt, in order to get him to confess his feelings. Duh! Fortunately, her reluctant friend Warren is there to help. Will she succeed, or will all her plans fail miserably? Hint: it’s not the former.

Cold hard facts
2 boys
10,109 words (may change slightly)
6 pathetic attempts at romance
4 endings
vast amounts of pink
humor (at least I hope so)

Characters



Marty
The happy-go-lucky protagonist. Her ideal in life is a manga heroine.

Warren (left)
The best friend who enjoys watching Marty fail. He likes sweets. A lot.

Matt (right)
The clueless love interest. He's a nice, normal, non-manga reading person.

Vicky
The excitable friend who dreams of becoming an actress.

Screenshots



Edit: the links should work now


Looking forward to reading your thoughts on this.

26.03 Edit:

Vicky now has a sprite!
Also, the game has a proper page on my blog where you can see more screenshots.

31.03 Edit:

It's done! Congrats to everyone who managed to finish their games on time. ^_^

Download link on the game page (I didn't post a direct link so I won't have to edit this post for future versions):
http://summerfoundme.wordpress.com/signed-x/

[Mimi_Melody]

Yay, I saw this on your blog and was wondering when it'll be here, now it's HERE! Good luck with the game

[ofdawnandtwilight]

xDDD
Really loving the idea, I have been waiting for any announcement on this ever since you noted it in Summer Found Me's thread and I'm in the mood for hilarious romance recently (ever since I finished Get Gumped, it's like a shoujo romance fever now) so perfect timing
And hooray for you being able to participate in this year's NaNo, cause it looks awesome! I like Warren for now. I have a thing for the best friends and those blue highlights *A*
The art looks gorgeous btw, but I somehow can't access the full sized screenshots, could you perhaps post them somewhere else or maybe just attach them here?
And while we're at it, may I volunteer for beta-testing? :3

[KittyKatStar]

Yesss, I love this already~

Good luck with it, especially since you started fashionably late.

[EchoLove]

I love all of your other works so im really excited for this one

[Flowers from Nowhere]

I loved Summer Found Me so I can't wait to play this!

[gekiganwing]

I usually associate the name "Marty" as a guy's name, but from what I read today, it can be a (nick)name for girls as well. Anyway, please state whether this is your main character's given name or the name she likes to be called.

Also, regarding your protagonist... what sort of comics does she read? Does she have a preferred genre or category (shoujo, BL, or something quite different)?

Do your characters live in a place where school uniforms are ordinary, or do they attend a private school where they're mandatory?

[GlassHeart]

I'm down to the last few details now, only a few more days to go! I'm really excited and nervous as well.
Thanks for commenting, guys, and thanks to my two beta testers nero279 and snowp. Your suggestions were great and I appreciate your help.

@gekiganwing
The name Marty is just the default, it can be changed. I edited the first post to reflect that. I chose Marty because it sounds like the word for March in my native language, since Nano takes place in the month of March. I like using typical boys' names for girls and Marty just sounded right. I think it makes little difference if that's her "real" name or not. I tried not to pin anything down (their age/grade isn't even specified)

It's a pretty short game, so I didn't think it was necessary to do the whole Name/Nickname/Age/Likes/Dislikes thing. But, to make it clear, she likes shoujo manga.

Like I said, I didn't mention anything specific. So it doesn't really matter if the school is private or public. But if a uniform exist, it's mandatory I imagine. Otherwise, what's the point? Even so, some students tend modify the look. Warren doesn't wear his tie and Marty doesn't wear her badge. This was to show their laid back attitude. ^_^

[Veniae]

Oh my, you're working on a new project! It sounds cute and I know how well you do rom-com, so, I'm excited for this! Looking forward to it.

[GlassHeart]

This should probably be moved to the completed section now, since it would be a waste of space to make another topic and just write the same thing.

[blahblah0625]

Will be playing this and reporting back with feedback.
Took me a while to get the 'Lesson Learned' ending, but I'm glad I tried!
It was very hilarious, and Warren was ADORABLE.

[KittyKatStar]

The writing was very cute (poor cupcakes~) and I loved all of the attempts. XD

It was a very cute, and sweet VN. Congratulations on getting this released!

[Arowana]

I loved this game and can't believe you did it all by yourself in two weeks - you have some crazy awesome skills!

I think a cute little story like this was perfect for the time frame you had, and the script kept me laughing constantly. I won't list all the parts that cracked me up, because there were just too many. Marty is hilarious, Warren is an awesome straight man, and Matt and Vicky are adorable. Everything was just so much fun.

I also appreciated your attention to visual details. I'm quite fond of the cute bouncy animations for the headers and choice menus, plus the pretty custom GUI. The way you did the BGs looks very nice as well, even though I'm not usually a fan of filtered photos (I'm a total hypocrite ahaha). <3

All in all, I really enjoyed this game and am looking forward to your future works even more! ;D

[GlassHeart]

@arowana
I didn't think I would be able to pull off "cute", but so far everyone seems to like it
With each game I try to add new things. Blinking sprites, prettier GUI, better transitions, all that stuff. Hopefully I won't let any of the other assets drop in quality either.

I know, filtered photos are bad. Not to mention I worked so hard on finding a good way to filter them, I might have been better off drawing them...

For now I'm taking a break. It feels good to release a game, I want to enjoy it for a while. ^_^

@blahblah0625
I would have thought lesson 'learned would' be the first or second one everyone got. You must have been set on someone from the start ^^

@KittyKatStar
Thank you. I know, poor cupacakes. T_T But their sacrifice will not be forgotten.

[EchoLove]

Just making sure is Warren's 'romantic' ending called not signed M? Because im just making sure since he's my favorite character xD