The Pirate Mermaid [GxB][Fantasy] - New Demo Out!

[KittyKatStar]

Good luck with the 2014 release. ^_^v Sounds like everything is coming together nicely, just don't fall more victim to feature creep! (We're all speaking from experience lol XD )

[Bouki]

Thanks for the update, everything looks so amazing! Best news is the release date though, I really can't wait to play this game
I think your art is simply gorgeous ^^ I really liked backgrounds. I'm a sucker for little details, so how the sunlight shines upon the sea or the color shifts in that forest background really amazed me. It must take a lot of time to draw like that, thank you for your hardwork D: Character art is equally good too, every character is attractive with original designs. I especially love how you designed their clothes, and how MC has more than one outfit.
My favorite bachelor is Malik I guess (yay for some irresistable badboy-ness), but judging from the demo, our MC might be my favorite character in the game since she is so badass haha. I wasn't sure if I liked Malik in red, but his red version in your update looks really good in my opinion. I guess it's a darker red than before? I think this dark-red suits him really, he looks both handsome and dangerous (and needless to say, smoking hot). I am now fully convinced that he should be red. I played the demo and liked the character art, when I checked the updates and saw the new sprites I was like ''Holy unicorns, what kind of sorcery is this?!?!!? D:'' Apart from main characters, I
really like the idea of adding that maid. It kind of bores me when you just pursue one guy and don't even interact with any other character. It would be fun to try and befriend someone. Who needs another friend when you already have Jack at your side, though
I have really high expectations about the script too. a2 is one of my favorite games (even forced my friend to play it lol) so I got pretty excited when I found out this game has the same writer. And holy-molly, will the final word count be over 200k? That's like a dream coming true *cries into hands* A game like this, with both impressive art and writing will be like heaven ^^ Thanks for your hard work, I hope you can keep making progress and update soon!

[Nebty]

@ NebtyMaybe we can put in a short scene at the end for players to pick a love interest, but yeah, we won’t treat any pairing as more “canon” than the others.

That would be lovely and much appreciated (I really do wish that more games did this). Thanks for the reassurance.

Re: Red vs Orange - I quite like the orange, actually, though the darker red you've used in the most recent sprite update is very nice as well. Go with whichever one you like best.

From looks alone, I'd say Malik seems like he'll be a bit of a joker. He looks like he'll enjoy teasing our poor protagonist. Will we be able to romance him if we play a good guy? I can never bring myself to be nasty in video games for some reason. I always end up choosing the "good" options.

Also that mer-maid is adorable. With her colouring she looks like a goldfish. Does she have a notably bad memory?

[Erikka]

It looks so good - I lost all my words!
Amazing art and wonderful work!
Is there going to be sexual content in the game?))

[Nellie]

The girl and last mer-man are really great! I want to pick on the maid though >>" Maybe I'm strange? The mer-man looks like a delinquent type to me. Jack is always looking on point haha Keep up the great work! Can't wait to download and read it once it's here

No no, you're not strange at all. She does give off the aura that makes you want to pick on her XD Thanks, we'll work hard (and I'll try not to slack too much ^_^;;)

It's really good to see this game coming along, can't wait for it's release!

The sprites are looking really good :3 I vote for the red tail by the way, i really like it.

Jack is adorable.. That last sprite with him wearing a top hat and having a diamond shaped monocle just cracks me up

Yay red tail team XD
Oh it's not exactly a monocle... That's just his greedy eyes... Hehehe $_$ Don't we all love Jack? <3 //shameless

I always knew Jack was a gentleman and a scholar.

These are great!

Jack 'da hero... of Shinies!

Good luck with the 2014 release. ^_^v Sounds like everything is coming together nicely, just don't fall more victim to feature creep! (We're all speaking from experience lol XD )

Shoo feature creeps! The great kitty shall be there to ensure you're not welcomed XD We'll try hard to abide by the deadline... (this time)

Thanks for the update, everything looks so amazing! Best news is the release date though, I really can't wait to play this game
I think your art is simply gorgeous ^^ I really liked backgrounds. I'm a sucker for little details, so how the sunlight shines upon the sea or the color shifts in that forest background really amazed me. It must take a lot of time to draw like that, thank you for your hardwork D: Character art is equally good too, every character is attractive with original designs. I especially love how you designed their clothes, and how MC has more than one outfit.
My favorite bachelor is Malik I guess (yay for some irresistable badboy-ness), but judging from the demo, our MC might be my favorite character in the game since she is so badass haha. I wasn't sure if I liked Malik in red, but his red version in your update looks really good in my opinion. I guess it's a darker red than before? I think this dark-red suits him really, he looks both handsome and dangerous (and needless to say, smoking hot). I am now fully convinced that he should be red. I played the demo and liked the character art, when I checked the updates and saw the new sprites I was like ''Holy unicorns, what kind of sorcery is this?!?!!? D:'' Apart from main characters, I
really like the idea of adding that maid. It kind of bores me when you just pursue one guy and don't even interact with any other character. It would be fun to try and befriend someone. Who needs another friend when you already have Jack at your side, though
I have really high expectations about the script too. a2 is one of my favorite games (even forced my friend to play it lol) so I got pretty excited when I found out this game has the same writer. And holy-molly, will the final word count be over 200k? That's like a dream coming true *cries into hands* A game like this, with both impressive art and writing will be like heaven ^^ Thanks for your hard work, I hope you can keep making progress and update soon!

We'll try hard not to disappoint you with the release date! >_< Thanks so much for all the attention and love you put into the assets! *tears of joy*

I can assure you (shamelessly lol) that mc is pretty badass. Just check out the update below for just *how* badass she can get hehehe And yes, Jack is the only friend... and probably enemy you will need to ensure there'll never be a boring day, but hey... who would say no to a lovely mer-maid with glasses?

Aro is a very good writer, so the story for PM will definitely be on par or better than a2! (in my personal opinion anyway! Though I'm sure many would agree haha) The final work count will definitely be over 200k, so you'll have quite a bit to read/play! We definitely hope the final product/outcome won't disappoint you!

@ NebtyMaybe we can put in a short scene at the end for players to pick a love interest, but yeah, we won’t treat any pairing as more “canon” than the others.

That would be lovely and much appreciated (I really do wish that more games did this). Thanks for the reassurance.

Re: Red vs Orange - I quite like the orange, actually, though the darker red you've used in the most recent sprite update is very nice as well. Go with whichever one you like best.

From looks alone, I'd say Malik seems like he'll be a bit of a joker. He looks like he'll enjoy teasing our poor protagonist. Will we be able to romance him if we play a good guy? I can never bring myself to be nasty in video games for some reason. I always end up choosing the "good" options.

Also that mer-maid is adorable. With her colouring she looks like a goldfish. Does she have a notably bad memory?

Oho, red team is getting pretty strong :3

Yea, you'll still be able to romance him regardless of your... karma, but the ending would varies. "Good" options may not always bring around the most 'memorable' endings... Ufufufufu... (it's a way to tempt you to try to get all the different endings hehehehe)

It looks so good - I lost all my words!
Amazing art and wonderful work!
Is there going to be sexual content in the game?))

Thanks for your compliment! Unfortunately, there won't be any sexual content in the game. Because urgh... How does sex works with merfolks?


As promised, more art updates! Just to sell to you that our mc actually does kickass and not a girl you can push around...

She'll be fighting... And beating ppl up quite a bit! And of course, getting into troubles, most of it no thanks to old Jack XD

Soon we'll be running out of updates we can actually show without it being too spoiler-y >_<

Here's a couple of screenshots of scenes I like from the game so far!


Don't you agree?


^_^;;


Sadist spotted! D:


We know, Jack. We know! XD


Wizard doesn't seem too happy though...


... At all


Not like Jack cares... ^_^;;


Doesn't he look all sweet and innocent?


He does, doesn't he? XD


Aro will be updating you all regarding the writing and coding aspects... And maybe show you some interesting video clips of the game!

[Mickychi]

Cool~ Lovely art as usual~ Can you upload a interesting video of that Kraken fight, cause that will be interesting~

[Mad Harlequin]

I like these screens too! They show off the characters' personalities really well.

[Psyff101]

Whoa! To think that after a year of lurking again I would stumble on this wonderful update

[Eight Rooks]

Some great art here - not just in terms of technical competence (the colours, the proportions etc. are really good) but I like the way the chibi stuff you've shown fits with the "proper" designs. Obviously lots of people do this but I think it's still a hard thing to do well. I thought the coconut scene clip was done really well. Character designs seem pretty solid, though I'm not totally sold on the look you're going for with the mermen... this isn't much a complaint since I'm not really your target audience in that respect, but just the tiny fins makes it seem a bit too much as if you'd rather be drawing guys in very short swimming trunks. Nothing wrong with that! But I don't feel like it completely fits the tone. They seem to fit your world, your setting, much better when they're wearing a bit more. I'm sure plenty of people won't mind at all, though.

(The one thing that does weird me out a little is the very visible crotch lines at the top of the tail area. Just personal taste, it's not a deal breaker, and I'm sure it's probably just me. A quick GIS shows me apparently plenty of people do like to draw merpeople this way, so no worries. But it strikes me as... I don't know, a bit odd.)

I wouldn't say there was anything wrong with the story and your character summaries and so on. You've obviously got experience with what makes VNs tick and what people like and you seem to have a decent spread of character types to work with. A pirate theme seems like a good fit for a morality system, though I'd be careful about exactly how dark you want to make the "evil" end of the scale - I'm not sure the artwork really suggests anything truly horrible or upsetting. I don't think you should be too worried about making the story "realistic" or plausible, though. You probably need some logic and rules and so on, but yeah, you're making a complete fantasy - don't tie yourself or your team down.

[try10]

ADORABLE! Their expressions are gorgeous! And the merman JUST LOOK AT THAT DEVILISH *cough* Innocent MERMAN! *faints*

[Nebty]

Malik is definitely growing on me~ Cheeky bastard. I am pleased that he compliments our Kraken-beating skills. Also he looks snazzy in red. Definitely stick with that.

The Wizard's grumpy wiggly mouth in that one screen is absolutely perfect! I love that his route will involve learning magic. Can't wait.

Also, maybe it's just a perspective trick, but Mikali's arms look shorter in the pose where he's facing the screen than they do in his other poses.

[Erikka]

"Thanks for your compliment! Unfortunately, there won't be any sexual content in the game. Because urgh... How does sex works with merfolks?"

I've been also thinking about this))... yeah, it's complicated... Maybe in your world merfolks are like werewolves and once per month their tail turns to legs and genitals, lol)) I mean... who knows)) they have to multiply in some way)
If a parrot can turn to a merbird and fly under water then everything is possible, right?)

Anyway, I'm looking forward to your game!
Hope I didn't write anything stupid.

[Erikka]

By the way, Malik looks the most interesting to me and I like the red color scheme for him. He looks more attractive, dangerous and hot I like badass evil characters like him so he's my favoutite)) I can't wait to try his route))

[Arowana]

Happy September, everybody! I’ve been wanting to show some “The Pirate Mermaid” videos for a while, and finally got the chance to make and upload one. So here’s a preview for the current version of the game.



I wanted to show a lot of characters, so it jumps to different scenes and is almost 10 minutes long. But it’s my first video in glorious widescreen, so yay for no more black bars!

Along with the shiny new art, GUI, and animations, the video showcases several new features:

• Random name generator seeded with the names people have suggested so far. Feel free to suggest new names too! (Sorry the MC’s name keeps changing in the video – I choose a random name each playthrough, so my save files all have different names ^^)
• Light animation mode, which reduces BG and CG animations; hopefully it will help with laggy computers.
• Popup hints for karma and affection. Karma hints are the shiny emblems that appear after you pick a choice (good = dolphin, evil = skull, neutral = compass). Affection hints are the popup hearts/broken hearts that indicate whether a character’s affection is increasing or decreasing. You can switch them on or off in “Options,” depending on your preference.
• Stats screen and log. Character profiles are unlocked once a route opens up (technically, they should all still be locked at that point in that video, but I unlocked some to demonstrate.)

Let us know if you have any comments or suggestions!

***

I’m also working on a small minigame that you can play during combat scenes. It’s like a cross between DDR and a typing game, where you try to hit certain arrows before they disappear (in order to attack your opponent/block their attacks). If you’ve learned magic, you can also “cast spells” by typing in different arrow sequences.

Some WIP screenshots (don’t worry, this is just test code and definitely not the final look):


What do you guys think about minigames like these (we would make it optional, so you can switch it off if you want to). The alternative could be timed choices, regular choices, or just plain story mode. Please let us know which you prefer.

***

@ Mickychi
Ah yes, I wanted to add the kraken to the end of the video, but I ran out of time. ^^ I will try to put it in the next video (which will probably be a battle/minigame demo?). Here’s a preview of that scene:

It’s kind of looks like a hentai game now, what with all the tentacles...

@ Mad Harlequin
Thanks, I like the story Nellie made up with the screenshots as well, haha.

@ Psyff101
I’m happy you found our project again!

@ Eight Rooks
Thank you, I’m glad the hard work on the art has paid off! Having all these shirtless guys on screen is a little embarrassing for me too (I can’t imagine trying to explain this game to my parents, haha), but that does seem to be the norm for merfolk depictions. If I remember correctly, even the Disney movie never gave the mermen any shirts...perhaps extra clothes make them less streamlined for swimming? Our mermen do wear more when they are at the palace, if that helps. As for the crotch lines, huh, how interesting – I never really noticed it before! I’ll see what Nellie says.

While the beginning of the game is relatively lighthearted, the evil endings do get darker (e.g. murder, character death, etc.). We’ll keep the more comical artistic elements, such as chibis, gag expressions, and emotes, out of those parts.

@ try10
Yep yep, he’s a completely innocent and very sweet and not at all devilish guy!

@ Nebty
Thanks, I think the deeper red in the new art is much better than the lighter red I originally chose! Glad that other people like it too. And yes, the sorcerer’s route involves learning magic to break into the mermaid treasury (I don’t remember if we ever said that before, in which case, good job guessing it!).

Not sure about the arms (my anatomy sense is quite poor ^^;), so I’ll ask Nellie. (Btw, I really liked your earlier suggestion about the mer-maid and her goldfish memory. Malik’s nickname for her is “goldfish” too, so it fits well)

@ Erikka
Lol, that’s quite a creative idea! It really confuses me too, how mermaids reproduce. Do they lay eggs like fish or have live births like mammals? I don’t know if we will ever find out the truth. I also think that Malik looks the most attractive out of all the guys, possibly because he was the last sprite done (or because I have a fetish for high ponytails ).

[KittyKatStar]

Uwaaa, the animations and cut-ins look so cute >o< Great job!