Noctua - Ephemeral Whispers - [Version 0.2.1 Demo III Ready!

[Fawkes - Feathered Melody]

The idea of dreams, especially in the world and society today, compose the main theme of Noctua.

There are three main characters:

Ereyan - A skeptic and realist is how I would best describe him. He was once an avid daydreamer, but left that behind. He is currently in high school.

Celesta - A girl Ereyan once played make-believe with who continues to hang onto those dreams.

Persephone - I don't want to say too much on her since she's an integral part of the story. She's not someone he knows but approaches him asking for help one day.

----

Title:


Celesta:


[Demo 3 - Version 0.2.1 Build - See [this post] for details]

Noctua Demo0.2.1.zip

Noctua Demo0.2.1-mac.zip

Noctua Demo0.2.1-linux-x86.tar.bz2

(I've taken down the old demo to save space. If you need it, I'll be happy to reupload)

[clowezra]

I told you that you'd manage to make dream sequences...xD S'brilliant. I can't wait to help out with this project!~

[Jamuko]

Yay~ it is revealed!

I will be returning as character artist. ^^

[clowezra]

Yay~ it is revealed!

I will be returning as character artist. ^^

OMG!? Really!? That's brilliant! I thought you might not want to do it....this is brilliant!:D

[monele]

This was a bit short for 6mb but hey . Good luck with the project ^.^

[Fawkes - Feathered Melody]

Thanks everyone! ^^

Progress report. I just finished and released internally the foundation revision for Noctua.

To note, I don't have the "I said" and "Celesta said" things in there because they'll be stated in the game itself in the textbox. I've tried to make it so the speaker is as clear as possible. Here's a sample from the first chapter:

“What happens when we all stop dreaming? What happens to those dreams that are left behind by those who forgot how to dream? Do they disappear, or do they go to some hidden place to wait until their masters summon them once more?”

This morning, I remembered the dream I had last night.

One year, two years, maybe ten years have passed since I stopped putting the feathers into the old tin container on my desk at home; I honestly don't remember the real number. I failed to find the fairy kingdom where people could live happily forever or the truth in grand tales of adventure. No, we live a world where the notion of dreams have begun to fade from our memories in our fast-paced, work-a-holic, life. As the academics who study that sort of thing put it, the cold, harsh gale of reality blew them away.

In the middle of an unusually cold afternoon in March, I set out down the usual path leading out from my high school, Artemia Academy. The road curled into my neighborhood after passing through a dense patch of woods much larger than our little Podunk of a town and eventually led to my house. I drew my coat close and tightened my scarf's hold on my neck. Every gust pricked my exposed hands like sharp needles. Spring would inevitably come soon enough and drive this harsh cold away though. Having taken this road for the last three years, every detail seemed innately familiar to me. As I came down the dirt path, there would always be the stray black cat waiting by a large pine tree, the fallen oak tree resting over a moss covered stump, and near the end of the road, I could hear the faint hiss of a fast flowing stream out of sight deep in the woods.

And then, as I turned the last corner of the woodland path, a girl of my age stood quietly under the shadow of a tree with hair so white, nobody could have spotted her in the middle of the arctic if she had not had on her heavy gray coat. From her string necklace hung a white feather, pristine as if it had just fallen from the wings of a dove. The last gust of wind shook some leaves from nearby trees that danced and twirled their way around her to the ground. Just when I walked past her, she turned slowly towards me and stared right at me with those green eyes of hers.

“Hey, do you remember the world we created together?” She spun the feather at its base slowly while continuing to look into the flurry of falling leaves.

“Huh? Can you run that by me again?” I asked. Of course I caught what she said, but how did she expect me to respond to a question like that from a total stranger? I would think that most people these days would have thought she was some kind of lunatic.

“The world we created together. Our sanctuary. Keep it in mind for now.”

So that was her response? I shook my head, not wanting to hurt it any further than I had already that day. A heavy sigh escaped my mouth, and I kept walking on the way home. By the time I got home, the sun had passed under the western horizon and stained the sky a cool violet hue. Since I had forgotten to turn them off this morning, the two lamps over the porch were the only ones lit in the neighborhood already. As usual, the empty house greeted me with its silence. My mother served as a diplomat to some small, far away nation, and my father worked late into the night as a technician at an observatory. Neither of them came home very often, so I had to fend for myself. From night to lonely night, nothing changed: come home, cook dinner, do what I can on my homework, go to bed.

[Fawkes - Feathered Melody]

*I hope I'm not violating any rules by double posting* >____<

Well anyways, significant progress on Noctua. The baseline programming is done and sometime this week I might be releasing a demo of the first 2 or 3 chapters.

Screenshots:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v189/ ... emo_01.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v189/ ... emo_02.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v189/ ... emo_03.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v189/ ... emo_04.jpg

[monele]

Looks nice ^^... the starry backgrounds are great and the photo filters look particularly good

[Fawkes - Feathered Melody]

Thank you very much! ^_^

Here it is! The preview demo for Noctua. It covers the first 3 of 7 chapters. Linux and Mac OSX are untested, since I don't have access to those OSes >_____<

Noctua: Version 0.1.0
Demo Release

==============================================================
FORWARD

Thank you for downloading and installing Noctua: Ephemeral Whispers.

This version is the demo release of Noctua. It covers the first three chapters of the story out of the seven total in the final product.

To Do List:
-Character Profiles
-CG scenes
-Original Music
-Editing and tweaking of the story
-More Background Art

==============================================================
CREDITS

-Writer-
Fawkes

-Artists-
Jamuko
Pompi

-Background Art-
Photographs by Fawkes
Liam Higgins
Wikimedia Commons
NASA & Hubble Space Telescope ( http://hubblesite.org/ )

-Music-
TAM Music Factory ( http://www.tam-music.com/ )
Laogeodritt

-Advisors and Editors-
Clowezra
Lady Aurion

-Thanks to:-
DJ Skybound
Professor Raine
Lemmasoft Forums
Excessive amounts of coffee

-Developed with the RenPy Visual Novel Engine

==============================================================

CHANGELOG

0.1.0 - Demo Release 1 - 5/8/2007
-Editing for clarity and conciseness in chapters 1-3

0.0.2 - First Major Update - 5/2/2007
-Ren'Py Engine 6.2.0
-Changed behavior of story scene in chapter 5
-Placeholder images for all chapters
-Changed behavior of openings for chapter 1 and 4
-Major revision of chapter 4,5,6: Scrapped 5, introduced important segments to 4 and 6.
-Renumbered chapters. 6 to 5, 7 to 6, etc.

0.0.1 - Foundation Release - 4/7/2007
-Foundation Programming

[chronoluminaire]

Wow, this is looking very evocative. I like the Chapter 1 extract a lot. The disillusioned-dreamer concept is a powerful one, and the graphics are abstract but effective.

(Is it only me who found the jaded narrator a bit reminiscent of Kyon from Suzumiya Haruhi?)

[DaFool]

I'm waiting for Crows, but in the meantime, this will suffice

[Fawkes - Feathered Melody]

Many thanks for your support.

I can see where you see Kyon in Ereyan's character. It's probably because Noctua and TMOSH have the general theme of "living in a world where our childhood fantasies are lost."

Crows is coming. We're waiting on some art to come in and then if final testing goes as scheduled (which will take a week-ish), I'll release it. I'm very sorry to keep you all waiting on Crows Project.

[monele]

Hey, uh... I just tried the demo (it's been staying in my download folder for some time) and I have to say I liked it ^_^. Has there been progress since?

[Fawkes - Feathered Melody]

Hey, uh... I just tried the demo (it's been staying in my download folder for some time) and I have to say I liked it ^_^. Has there been progress since?

Well, I've been working on revisions and minor stuff that's not particularly conducive to screenshot/new demos. Kuri is working on character design art for Celesta, so I'll post that when it's ready which should be in the next couple of weeks.

[Fawkes - Feathered Melody]

Designs for Celesta and Persephone by Kuri