~ A Personal Memoir ~
“It’s amazing how you can tell entire cities apart based on skylines alone. How much does your silhouette say about you?”
Senior year's a hard enough year as it is, even without friends on stupid "cheer-up" missions. How can their final year get any worse?
Famous last words.
Characters:
Note - my awful resizing job does not do these images justice.
The visual novel is seen through Christopher “Chris” Lauria’s eyes. He starts the visual novel with a reserved personality that changes dependent on your choices. The personality that you craft for him will color his choice options as the story goes on. For example, acting passive for a long enough time will make “tough guy” options harder to pull off. Likewise, creating an aggressive personality will make it harder for gentler options to come off as kind. It all depends on the way that you steer him and the situations that you get him into.
Thomas “Thom” Hatch is Chris’ best and, at the time of the visual novel’s opening, only friend. The two of them go way back. Called Thom instead of Tom for the sake of being unique, Thom’s the jokester in the group. Although he’s hard to take seriously, he’s a lot more grounded in reality than he lets on. He’s the BxB option, but since this VN’s more about the story than the pursuit-of-romance, don’t expect it to be an easy path to take.
Isabelle “Izzie” Westfield is Lincoln-Fair Academy’s newest student. She becomes the glue that holds Chris and Thom’s slowly distancing friendship together at the beginning of the visual novel. She’s all smiles, but how much of her happiness is truly genuine? Why transfer to Lincoln-Fair of all schools? Teaming up with Thom, she vows to turn Chris’ frown upside down after learning about his post break-up depression.
Rosalia “Lia” Ramirez is Chris’ ex-girlfriend and the one that’s dumped him a little while before the visual novel starts. Normally confident, she has difficulty when it comes to matters of the heart. In response to that sentence, she asks, "hey, doesn't everyone? It's called being human." Her main struggle is having a family that doesn't support her. I've said too much already.
Features:
A story of trust, identity searching, cultural issues, uncertainty, and the messiness of a year in an American high school
Writing by kaleidofish of ouroboros[connect]
Sprite art by the forever-amazing Deji
Custom music and GUI (I hope, lol)
2 BxG romances, 1 BxB romance, a whole lot of writing
Choices that really do lead to multiple endings (hey, if you played my other games, you know this is a step-up for me)
Bonus Art:
Drawn by untramen. Find a bigger version and more bonus art!!! on the official ouroboros[connect] website!
Why Highschool?:
I chose this setting for several reasons. I wanted the characters to be at an identity-exploring age where they're still figuring out who they are, way before "real world issues." I also wanted to capture that "constrained in the classroom, hurry up and get here summer, I can't wait until I move out of my parents house, when's college gonna start already, etc." type of feeling. The "trapped" (and often times lonely) feeling is key. And that intense amount of frustration, too, towards lives that are changing too slowly.
Another reason is that I want to create a visual novel that does explore teenage insecurities, rather than brushing them under the rug so you can pursue this or that character. Things aren't glamorous. Dating doesn't come easy, and some times, it doesn't come at all. Being a teenager is awkward (says the recently turned 20 year old). There's so much untapped potential in this setting. I want to shake this setting down for all that it's worth, in other words.
Let Me Know:
Any thoughts? Questions for me or the characters?
Words of encouragement?
Suggestions? Any awkward anecdotes of your own to share?
What sounds better "Skylines: A Personal Memoir" or "Skylines: A Personal Manifesto"? The characters get a writing assignment where they have to explore who they are as writers, and how that relates to them as a person. This assignment can either be called the "Personal Manifesto" or the "Personal Memoir." ...Or something else entirely if you've got a better idea!!
Should this be set during Junior year of HS or Senior year of HS? There are pros and cons to both sides.
Thanks for the support! (And yes...most of the text is copied and pasted from the other thread.)
Anddddd...yes, k-fish is back. Check out this story I made with Twine if you'd like a short and recent sample of my writing. Warning: it's nuts.