Anathema (Mystery, Detective, Historical)

[Peach]

Anathema

In the year 1820, the young french noblewoman Lucienne Laval travels to Peru to marry the son of her fathers rich business partner. She gets their money, he gets her title - it all seems to be a good deal! But Luciennes arrival doesn´t go smoothly. In the dark of the night she witnesses something she shouldn´t have seen, something that someone wants to stay hidden at all costs. And so her investigation starts, fueled by the feeling of being watched...

A mystery Visual Novel with Point and Click elements, dialogue choices and a thrilling plot. Explore the house of the rich Espinoza family to uncover their secrets, decide carefully whom to trust, listen closely to what people say - And don´t get caught.

Main Characters:



Lucienne Laval:
14 years old, a clever and proud girl with ladylike demeanor. She is a bit uppity and finds more than enough to criticise about her new home. Towards her Fiancé Alejandro she acts cold, he seems childish and undignified to her. But when things get serious, it gets clear that she is very mature already, searching for clues and hints and coming to her own conclusions quickly. Someone sees a danger in her.



Alejandro Espinoza:
17 years old, a careless boy that doesn´t take life seriously. Everything is laid out for him, there will never be any problems to face, he will never know hunger or fear. He is instantly smitten with his Fiancée Lucienne and tries to get her attention with jokes that she doesn´t find funny. But when he finds her snooping around his house...

Other Characters:
Señor Espinoza, Alejandros father
Archbishop Parodi, a friend of the Espinozas
Bartolo, the grandfatherly, friendly Butler

---

I proudly present to you: My bachelor project!
My course of Study is Animation and Game Design, which I will conclude this summer, and this here is my little project that I hope will net me the title of Bachelor of Arts. Of course this title will not mean much anyway, but this is my first big project that I do all alone and so I´m both excited and scared. Programming, Drawing, Implementation, Plot, Dialogues, I have to do everything on my own! And my deadline is the 25th of June. Since I´m also doing my drivers license now, and my cat is terminally ill, well... It´s all a bit hectic and complicated.

Now that I have the majority of characters drawn, I thought it might be a good opportunity to present myself here. Of course I´m not going to show you everything just yet, but I will keep this as a bit of a diary for those interested, and its only fair that people that help me can see what I use their advice for!

When I am done, I will upload it here and update the information Critiques and Questions are always welcome, I´m still learning after all.

Progress:
Character Neutral Stills - 5/5
Character Emotive Poses - 90%
Backgrounds - 80%
CGs - 0/2
Story - 90%
Music - Royalty Free Music ;P
Coding - ???

Oh man, this doesn´t look good at all...

[ameliori]

I disagree! I think this looks very good! The plot is intriguing and the characters are well drawn and interesting.

Believe in yourself! I'll be looking forward to play your game. Good luck!

[fleet]

This sounds promising. Arranged marriages for people of that age were not out of the ordinary during that time period.

I strongly suggest you have some close friends test your visual novel BEFORE uploading. You'd be surprised how many typos and bugs can slip by (been there, done that).

[Mad Harlequin]

This project's combination of genre elements, setting, and the relationship at its core sounds very interesting and refreshing! It'll be fun to see how everything turns out.

[SelLi]

Honestly, it does look good. I'm sorry about your cat's illness... I've had 2 cats that got sickly. One of them got better, but then died later, there was nothing we could do, she had a weak heart. The other suffered from diabetes hard until... he got better! Then he got diabetic again, and then he got better again! And he's still here with me to this day, happy and healthy. So I really do hope your cat gets well.
Also, it's probably normal to have little confidence in yourself, and I would argue that one shouldn't have confidence in themselves, but don't put yourself down. Saying your project won't mean anything and that it looks bad- I think it looks good and you're putting in a lot of effort into this. That means something. You don't gotta be like that.

Anyway I'm looking forward to it. I like mysteries and stories that take place somewhere in the 1800s.

[Mad Harlequin]

Also, it's probably normal to have little confidence in yourself, and I would argue that one shouldn't have confidence in themselves, but don't put yourself down.

I wouldn't call low self-esteem "normal" (let's be honest: it can be unhealthy after a certain point). If the low self-esteem is persistent, that's a symptom of possible depression.

And there's a huge difference between self-confidence, which is usually related to one's self-image and opinion of one's accomplishments, and egotistical pride. A little bit of healthy pride in oneself is completely fine.

Peach:

I'm sure you'll create something wonderful. Just do your best and don't worry too much about what people will think. The most important thing to remember is that you will be putting time and effort into this project. There's no way that's not meaningful.

P.S: I'm sorry to hear about your sick kitty. I hope he or she will be as happy and comfortable as possible for as long as possible.

[AntiquedFae]

I just wanted to pop by and say I love the combination of genres, and the plot sounds fantastic! This looks great to me. I'm looking forward to it! Best of wishes to you!

[Peach]

Wow thank you everyone! Such nice words really lift my mind.
I just started writing the dialogues which should be done by next week Tuesday, then I´ll go back to arts and then I´ll have more to show to you all <3
Thank you for your attention and stay tuned~

[SelLi]

Wow, that's great. Writing is the bulk of- well- a story.

[Angie]

Looks intriguing.
I like stories from around this time period, and with such personality as you described, we can come across nice character development... good luck!

[tiya_nofurita]

The art style is not too mainstream but I kinda like the promise. Remember that I also like detective story too

[Peach]

I return... WITH SCREENSHOTS!
Yesyes, I have been very busy One month to go and my tasks are now implementation, programming and polishing.

NVL Style Narration:


ADV Style Dialogue:


Save/Load Screen:


Options Screen:

[SelLi]

The screenshots look very good. If I may, though, I think the shadows on the characters don't look so good. They make it feel to me like your characters are standing in front of a green screen, as opposed to in the place the backgrounds show. I think it would look better without shadows. The NVL style narration box and menus look terrific, I love the look of old paper.

Edit: The shadows FROM the characters being cast onto the backgrounds. The shadows ON the character sprites are good.