The Vampire Hostess [GxG Kinetic Novel][16+][Nano17]

[StarlingVisual]

Horror novelist Dahlia Ocampo prefers to write away from home, exploring new places for inspiration. For her latest work she decides to stay at a secluded Victorian mansion turned bed and breakfast in a small town near the sea.

Upon arrival, Dahlia finds herself instantly entranced by the bed and breakfast’s hostess, Ariadne. She’s not unfamiliar with having feelings for another woman- but her feelings for Ariadne seem… different. Is it true attraction? Or are her sudden feelings caused by something supernatural in nature?

Characters:


(Note: These are currently only sketchy concepts without shading; the final designs may be different and the art will be more polished)

Dahlia Ocampo: A successful authoress. Confident but also laid back. She’s almost always able to keep her cool- even when things get a little scary.

Ariadne Smith (Ari): The sole proprietor of the bed and breakfast Dahlia is staying at. She loves being a hostess and caring for her guests, despite her timid demeanor.

This is my first time officially participating in NaNoRenO. I’ve wanted to make my own visual novel for many years but never felt I was quite ready. This year I’ve decided to just go for it and try my best! This will be a very self indulgent kind of project, incorporating my love for spooky stories with my fangirl tendencies towards GxG romance/shoujou-ai media.

The story is inspired by and will adapt some scenes from The Vampire Maid by Hume Nisbet (which can be read here:http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks06/0602481.txt)
I am not an experienced writer so I thought I’d adapt a short story that is in the public domain to start off. However what I have plotted out now is vastly different from the original story. So, it won’t be a word for word adaptation with a GxG twist.

While this story will have horror elements I do not intend on adding jump scares or gore (there will be some blood shown, but not copious amounts). The horror aspects I plan will be more eerie than shocking. The story will have plenty of light hearted romance aspects as well.

As for wordcount I'm aiming for at least twice the length of the original short story which is about 5,000 words. (after finishing the plot outline I'm sure it'll be more than that though)

To help keep on track I've organized the finished plot into 5 acts, with a small to-do list for each. When each act is done I'll be putting that section's word count up as well.

Act 1:
- Script/Coding: in progress (Currently at 1400 words)
- 2 base sprites: 0%
- 2 sprite costume changes: 0%
- 1 CG: 0%
- 3 backgrounds: 0%

Act 2:
- Script/Coding: 0%
- 2 CGs: 0%

Act 3:
- Script/Coding: 0%
- 2 sprite costume variations: 0%
- 1 background: 0%
- 1 CG: 0%

Act 4:
- Script/Coding: 0%
- 1 new sprite: 0%
- 3 sprite costume variations: 0%
- 1 CG: 0%

Act 5:
- Script/Coding: 0%
- 1 sprite costume variation
- 2 CGs: 0%

Music/Sound:
All music will be from Myuuji, one of my favorite musical artists: https://www.youtube.com/user/myuuji
If you’re familiar with the horror reading side of youtube I’m sure you’ve heard his music in the background of several videos. The majority of his work is free to use so if you haven’t heard of him before and need some dark piano music, check his channel out! Sound effects will also be found from free sources.

I will be doing all the art, coding, GUI and writing myself. This project is mostly for fun but I’d like to gain experience and polish my skills with it as well. As such I won’t be looking for help with this project (at least for now). Even if it goes past the deadline I want to put as much effort possible into all of the assets.



As I currently have a full time job and other obligations updates might be slow- I’m going to aim for at least 2 updates per week (or at the very least to respond to any feedback received asap).

Thank you for reading, cheers to everyone who’s participating this year!

[Zelan]

This seems cool, good luck with it! ^_^ Character sprites + poses +variations might be a bit much, though, especially for the time constraints.

[Promy Katarackt]

I'm excited for this!

[parttimestorier]

Oh I was just thinking earlier today that it would be interesting to see more VNs adapted from other sources! It's definitely a great way to practice writing too - I always have an easier time writing specific scenes than I do coming up with an overarching plot, so I've written several of my own little adaptations of other things to help with that. The concept art looks really nice, especially for Ariadne - I can't wait to see it when it's even more polished! Good luck with everything.

[Kagiprojects]

I'm looking forward to this so much! The art is beautiful and the concept sounds so good to me. Good luck!

[femslashfatale]

I'm definitely interested in GxG interpretations of things, and the concept art looks pretty! I love their designs.

[StarlingVisual]

Thank you all for the words of encouragement! I'm glad the idea seems interesting.

I updated the original post with a to-do list, I'll be updating it as progress happens. My plan for this week is to finish Act 1's script (at least) and get going on the backgrounds and sprites. (Going to attempt to make the bases of the backgrounds in 3d with sketchup then paint over them) I want to do my best not to get caught up in perfecting the art at this stage- I know if I do the actual story part might not get written in time. ^_^;

[StarlingVisual]

Lil update, got another small bit of the script done, it's at 1,400 words now. I revised the plot and most of the intro script, so that put me back a little.

Currently working on sprites. Here's what I have of Dahlia's so far, note the hair shading isn't complete:



Edited: I was trying for a cell shaded coloring style originally and it just wasn't working out how I liked. So I ended up redoing some of the shading and adjusting some things. Here's the updated version! (Also she had nostrils now)

[Zelan]

I really like the style that you're using! Dahlia's cute. c:

[DarkSin]

This looks great! Intriguing premise, good-looking art (Ariadne's design in particular is just lovely), I'm looking forward to seeing your progress! Good luck NaNo-ing!