Magical Girl Memories [BxG][Fantasy, Slice of Life][Cancelled, 1st Post for Details]

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Magical Girl Memories [BxG][Fantasy, Slice of Life][Cancelled, 1st Post for Details]

#1 Post by pumpkin spike »

Update 9/1/2020:
It's been two long years, but I'm retiring this project, mainly because the story format has been repurposed and retold as a manga oneshot that can be read here:
https://medibang.com/book/eb2008311502503650016614882/

Image

I'm leaving this intro up because... I remember working hard typing it all back then and I don't want to delete it all :'D
Also with the cancellation of this project, I'll eventually be releasing the sprites as CC work here (may take me a few days to get everything up). When I find the time, I also intend to give the sprites an art update.

Anyways, thank you all for your interest in this project and hope you'll follow along in my future projects!

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I will be updating this first post soon, but... here's a new logo! :D
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I just found out about this event today and lucky me! It turns out I started my project on 3/4/18 so I can join with it! Okay, to be fair, I started brainstorming how I wanted the basic storyline to go about a week ahead of time.

All writing, drawing, and coding will be done by me. Music may be done by someone else and if not, also by me ;v; This will be a big project...! I honestly don't think I can even get the core part of this story done by the end of the month, but we'll see?

"Magical Girl Memories" is a temporary name until I come up with something better, if anyone has any ideas, please shoot away! ;]
I considered adding more genres to the game, but I'm not sure how well they fit just yet. The considered genres are: romance, friendship, mystery, suspense, and superhero. There are currently no winnable boys, but that may change depending on the direction of the story. My best friend read this and changed my mind. Depending on how this goes, there may be more boys (introduced), depends on the direction of the story.

Summary:
In a sleepy town where nothing seems to happen, you meet four girls who battle monsters in their free time! You've never seen them before, but they attend your school and maybe after nearly ten years of crushing on the same girl, you can fall in love with someone completely new during your senior year of high school.

This game has three parts: the present, the past, and the future. There will be chances to win four girls in the present portion, one (subject to change) in the past, and a choice of three in the future. All three parts has good and bad endings, with several "final" endings in the future section. Admittedly, I have not yet decided on the number of endings. ^^;

Although the main character will be interested in the girls, the actual story is probably going to be less romantic (with the plot I have in mind). The core of the story would be figuring out why these Magical Girls exist, who Moria really is, and what happened in the past, before moving forward to the future. The gameplay for the present portion will differ depending on which girl the player chooses to pursue. Betty will be a point and click detective story, monster fighting with Sandy, RPG world exploring with Jan (...if I can figure out how to do RPG programming ^^;), and a classic dating sim "love" story with Hana.

Each route will reveal more clues to the mystery in the game before a final reveal in the past portion of the game. These routes can be played in any order and... I'm thinking that the player has to play 3/4 routes?? I'm not sure cause this would be a very long game.

Cast:

Betty- A terrifying girl with a sharp tongue, she has no time for shallow flirting and wastes no chances to call the main character an idiot. She is the leader of the four magical girls, but is the weakest of them physically. Her contribution to the team is her analyzation and leadership skills. This is made possible with her magical girl outfit-- a robotic armored suit with a large database on... seemingly anything. Unfortunately, she cannot access this knowledge when she takes exams. Design:
Image Image
Sandy- A tiny and bubbly girl, she seems to have no brakes and is always crashing into things and people. There seems to be no end to her cheerfulness and is a bit of an airhead. Sandy is often the one to keep the peace amongst her teammates, especially with all the antagonism between the other three! She is Betty's best friend and tries to look out for her the most. She likes to think her friends' problems are hers too and works hard to solve them. She is the physically strongest of the team with gauntlets that increase her punching power. Design:
Image
Jan- A free-spirited girl who's always getting into trouble and getting away with it. She gives off an air of confidence, and is good at laughing off her own troubles and insecurities. She enjoys exploring and hates sitting still. She also detests the idea of normalcy and being a "regular person." Jan sometimes butts head with Betty, who enjoys keeping things organized and under control, while she prefers going with the flow and disappearing for days on end, breaking the team dynamic. Her best subject is chemistry. When transformed, her weapons are pistols that can fire bullets containing any chemical she wants. Design:
Image
Hana- A quiet girl whom most people consider the prettiest of the group. She often sticks with Jan and never voices her opinion. In fact, it's rather hard to get and keep her attention. She rarely cares about social norms and would walk off in the middle of a conversation without a word if it bores her. However, on topics that she does care about, if she starts overthinking she becomes quite the crybaby and breaks into tears. Hana is a natural genius and aces every subject at school, but has no interest in applying her skills anywhere. Hana's weapon is a mallet and when smashing opponents, is as strong as Sandy. She doesn't get along with Betty solely because she argues with Jan. Design:
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Moria- The main character has had a crush on her since the fourth grade. He gets tongue tied around her and can never hold a conversation for more than 10 minutes with her. They have been in the same class for nearly ten years, but she remains a mystery to him (and everyone in the class). She's quiet and often sickly, disappearing from school after lunch or missing school every other day. No one seems to have any memory of spending time with her. Design:
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<unnamed pet>- The obligatory cute creature that follows the group of magical girls around. He's loyal, that's all that matters, right? Design:
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Wendy- A magical girl from a different town. (To be expanded upon.)

<unnamed magical girl>- A magical girl from a different town. (To be expanded upon.)

Simon- A magical boy from another town, a good friend of Betty's and one of her many ex-boyfriends. He is a flirty rich kid and despite having broken up with Betty long ago, still takes her out on many dates. Always with sunglasses. He purposefully flirts with the main character just to piss Betty off. ("Unlockable" winnable character, courtesy of my best friend.) My best friend called dibs on him and you will have to fight them for Simon.

<The Main Character>- An average guy from an average town, looking for someway to either impress his crush or escape his feelings for her. Not cowardly, but known to lack courage. Has a love of fruitcups. He is nameable by the player and currently has the default name "John Doe." Currently no plans to give him a design, but... who knows, maybe?

More characters will be added as I continue on.

Game Plan
I think for this Nano I just want to get days one and two fully completed. Any more may just be icing on the cake. First I'll work on script (day one done), then art, then GUI. Since I'm done with the day one script, I'm filling in all the art gaps for it. This will mean that day two shouldn't require any graphics when I'm done. Then... GUI.

Current word count: 8,141 words

This thread is to report progress and to generate interest. This is the first time I'm making a visual novel and would love critique as I progress. I've always loved stories with alternate universes and "what ifs" and a visual novel feels like the perfect way to explore that. On top of that, this has been a story I've been trying to find time to tell so this was a great chance. I would love feedback on the story as the the game is developed, and when it is finished. (To be fair, I don't know how much of the story I will be revealing here so maybe I can only accept story feedback once the game is done? I guess that's another point I'd like advice on.)

This is also my chance to try and get back into some programming. I had one class to complete major credits in college and haven't really programmed at all since I graduated. While the features I'll be including in this game aren't particularly difficult to code, I'm hoping to at least get used to it again. I'm forgetting what stacking does-- I'm lucky to remember why I'm supposed to define my variables ;u;"

Questions for... Anyone who wants to Answer!
  1. What do you think of the summary and characters? Are they too bland? Or maybe you have a favorite one already?
  2. Do you think I should expand on the summary, setting, and/or characters, or leave that for players to find out in the game?
  3. Do you have any suggestions for the title, name of the pet, and the last, unnamed magical girl?
  4. Is there a way to resize images in the forum or do I have to go directly to the source and resize them?
  5. How do you pick the poses for your sprites? What do you use as inspiration?
  6. What's your process for drawing sprites? Do you start with one image and edit as you go or do you work layer by layer? How much rework do you usually end up doing?
Last edited by pumpkin spike on Tue Sep 01, 2020 6:17 pm, edited 7 times in total.
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Re: Magical Girl Memories [BxG/B][Fantasy, Slice of Life][Nano18]

#2 Post by pumpkin spike »

Updates:

The full script for Day 1 is finished. Per my plan there are 21 days in the Present portion and I haven't started with the Past and Future portions. ...I might change this cause this is rather overkill... ^^;

I've added a new character, and a new mini-route courtesy of my best friend (thanks for more work dude). Originally, this would've been an idea for an afterstory I wanted to tell after this story was finished. But I guess you can romance, Simon, a magical boy, for now. There are definitely many magical boys in this universe, too :D

Also managed to make some sprites for Betty! I wanted to give her a purple theme, but I don't know if this is overkill... =v=; I like to imagine that she stole the purple dress shirt from one of her exes.

Image Image Image

I'm debating on continuing to finish all of Betty's sprites, or just make them as I need them for the story. I want to work on everyone else too ;v;" Ugh... maybe I was a little too over ambitious for this project ;;

And a question for all the artists, how do you draw your sprites? Do you just draw one image and edit them as you go to get all the poses/expressions you want? How much rework do you usually end up doing?

//goes to update first post
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Re: Magical Girl Memories [BxG][Fantasy, Slice of Life][Nano18]

#3 Post by Zelan »

What do you think of the summary and characters? Are they too bland? Or maybe you have a favorite one already?: There's not a whole lot to go off of for the summary, but the characters seem decent.

Do you think I should expand on the summary, setting, and/or characters, or leave that for players to find out in the game?: Give us enough information to get us interested, but don't tell us all of the good stuff before we even play the game. (I know that's not an exact answer, but it's something you'll want to keep in mind anytime you're trying to write a summary.)

How do you pick the poses for your sprites? What do you use as inspiration?: Take the character's personality into account. A shy character might hunch their shoulders, while a confident character might have their hands on their hips.

I like your art style. Also, I have to say, good job on the hands for Betty's sprite. The "one hand on the hip" pose is really common in VNs, but a lot of times it looks... weird. And wrong. Yours looks good (as well as the hand she has in a fist).

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Re: Magical Girl Memories [BxG][Fantasy, Slice of Life][Nano18]

#4 Post by pumpkin spike »

Zelan wrote: Tue Mar 13, 2018 6:39 pm What do you think of the summary and characters? Are they too bland? Or maybe you have a favorite one already?: There's not a whole lot to go off of for the summary, but the characters seem decent.

Do you think I should expand on the summary, setting, and/or characters, or leave that for players to find out in the game?: Give us enough information to get us interested, but don't tell us all of the good stuff before we even play the game. (I know that's not an exact answer, but it's something you'll want to keep in mind anytime you're trying to write a summary.)
Hi there! Thank you for answering my questions ^^ I thought about your advice and added more to each character and a summary of how the gameplay will occur. It's a pretty tough balance to figure out what information I want to give...
How do you pick the poses for your sprites? What do you use as inspiration?: Take the character's personality into account. A shy character might hunch their shoulders, while a confident character might have their hands on their hips.
I will definitely think more of this as I create the rest of the sprites for the characters. I guess I'm struggling cause some of the characters are... in between? Like, Sandy is both tough and an airhead so I ended up having her raise a fist and spread her other hand out -v-;
I like your art style. Also, I have to say, good job on the hands for Betty's sprite. The "one hand on the hip" pose is really common in VNs, but a lot of times it looks... weird. And wrong. Yours looks good (as well as the hand she has in a fist).
Wow, thank you! ^^ Yea, I looked up a reference and studied it for a long time before sketching her hand for an even longer time. I hope to continue the trend, I always feel like my art deteriorates a bit when I draw for too long.
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Re: Magical Girl Memories [BxG][Fantasy, Slice of Life][Nano18]

#5 Post by pumpkin spike »

Animating is rough. ;v;" Why did I decide cutscenes will be a good idea...???
Art is coming along... slowly. I get stuck on backgrounds and today I tried to animate. This project is definitely pushing me to do things I'm not used to/things I dislike drawing (classrooms, perspective)

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Re: Magical Girl Memories [BxG][Fantasy, Slice of Life][Nano18]

#6 Post by pumpkin spike »

Sprites for all girls in the present portion have been drawn. (I'm debating on drawing generic sprites for the main character's friends.) Expressions for all the characters are halfway done. I might hold off on Hana and Moria for now since they don't need a full set of expressions for Day 1.

Next, I have to draw them all in their school uniforms! ...Then, their magical girl outfits! Oh, there's still a lot of sprite drawing left alright... I'm debating on giving them new poses for when they're in battle since most of them do not have a battle like pose. But, oh boy! That'll be quite a bit more work orz (scope creep...?)
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Re: Magical Girl Memories [BxG][Fantasy, Slice of Life][Nano18]

#7 Post by pumpkin spike »

I guess it's worth admitting now that I'm not even going to finish my original goal of 2 days for this project before the end of March xD
...Maybe if it was my sole focus, I would've gotten it done (but I was also participating in other art related events)-- but that's just an excuse...! I won't stop trying to finish this game :3 especially now that I have an idea of how I want the game to go and even how the gui will look like...! I don't really have any updates since my last post. But a theme for today from the art event is monochrome green so I drew Jan:

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Re: Magical Girl Memories [BxG][Fantasy, Slice of Life][Nano18]

#8 Post by Neeka »

This game looks really cute! I'm normally not a fan of magical girls because they're usually cutesy airheads but this seems really promising! Keep up the good work ^-^

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Re: Magical Girl Memories [BxG][Fantasy, Slice of Life][Nano18]

#9 Post by pumpkin spike »

Neeka wrote: Tue Apr 10, 2018 7:33 pm This game looks really cute! I'm normally not a fan of magical girls because they're usually cutesy airheads but this seems really promising! Keep up the good work ^-^
Thank you! I'm still chugging along! c:
While I intend to follow some magical girl tropes, I'm going to try and break away and make their fights more realistic.
Sandy'll be the closest to a cutesy airhead, but even she's got way more of a clue than she lets on c;
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Re: Magical Girl Memories [BxG][Fantasy, Slice of Life][Nano18]

#10 Post by pumpkin spike »

Update!
Still working on this game c: Attached is an example of how the GUI will look like! The girls will transfer when the mouse hovers over them.

I've also jumped ahead and started scripting Betty's route. It's nearly... 40% done? I've decided that each route will be 5 days long. I'm nearing the end of Day 2 for Betty. Even so, there's a lot of art assets to be drawn orz

I've also started on Day 2, but there's so many (alternate) fight scenes that I have to write, I've been avoiding it. (oops)
Attachments
GUI_sample.PNG
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Re: Magical Girl Memories [BxG][Fantasy, Slice of Life][Cancelled, 1st Post for Details]

#11 Post by pumpkin spike »

(soft bump)
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