Kitsune (BxG, Youkai)

[Khadrian]

Hello Everyone! I've edited this post to hopefully improve the presentation and bring forth the more immediately relevant information. As always, thank you for taking a look at this project.

Project Scope

I would like to start out with an idea of the direction I plan to take this project. In essence, Kitsune is one story split into 2 projects; the main game, and the series (3) of kinetic novels that make for a short prequel and introduction. This prequel is titled "Kitsune: Memories" and, as the title suggests, heavily revolves around memories. The three parts are, Kitsune: Memories ~ Kana, Kitsune: Memories ~ Kagura, and Kitsune: Memories ~ Itsuko, with each taking place during the same time frame, but witnessed from different perspectives. The Memories series will be one at a time prior to the main game.
The main game will have a different ending route for each of the three main heroines; Kana, Kagura, and Itsuko. Finishing these three routes will unlock the "Path of Winter" route which tells the story of the antagonist, and then finally the "Path of Summer" true end.

TL;DR - A 3 part prequel will be released prior to the main game. The main game has 1 ending for each heroine (3), and a 2-part true end.

Premise

MAIN
Kuragi Natsu returns to his home town of Inayama to finish high school. In the past he moved away leaving behind his childhood friend, Koeyume Kana, who he is now able to reunite with. Other "friends" include Inaba Kagura, who seems to have some sort of vendetta against him for an unknown reason, and his best friend from his previous high school, Izaki Haruhi, who secretly follows him back to Inayama. In addition is the girl Kogitsune Itsuko who claims she's a fox that promised Natsu's ancestor that she would look after him. Despite Itsuko's obnoxious clinging, Natsu is going to need to learn to accept her help after the revival of the legendary nine-tailed fox, Tamamo-no-Mae, puts him in the crosshairs of the ancient fox for her unknown scheme.

MEMORIES
Kitsune: Memories is a form of prequel that takes place before Natsu leaves Inayama the first time, and is told from Natsu's perspective, but by using the memories of the 3 main heroines. Natsu finds himself in an empty void where he has no memories or senses—he's practically nonexistent, but a voice speaks to him. The voice tells him that in order to save himself from non-existence he needs to remember, but being in a state between existing and not existing (closer to the latter) he himself has no memories. Thus the voice devises a way around this problem by showing him the memories of those around him in which he was involved. Throughout the story Natsu slowly starts to regain a sense of self, including the senses and emotions he had previously been void of. This story will lead directly into the main Kitsune story.

Story

The six routes of the main game. Player choices will all take place during the common route, and there will only be 1 ending in each other route.

COMMON

KANA

ITSUKO

KAGURA

PATH OF WINTER
First part of the "true end" (named after the antagonist). This is a story of the antagonist, Winter, and takes place during the Heian period of Japan, and ends somewhere in the Edo period. My own version of the story of the nine-tailed fox Tamamo-no-Mae, which covers the before, after, and during of when she went by that name. The point of this story is to give the reader a better idea of why Winter is who she is.

PATH OF SUMMER
The "true end" (named after the protagonist). At this point any unsolved questions will be answered. However, being the true end, it might be best to leave this section a bit empty. You know, why ruin the story, right? Perhaps I'll add something in under a spoiler tag at a later date.

Characters

For now, character images are limited to rough "silhouette" sketches. They'll be updated with progress. Please look forward to it.

Kuragi Natsu
Hair: Short, Brown
Eyes: Green
Body: Average Height
Clothes: School Uniform
Personality: Competitive, Friendly, Overconfident
Role: Protagonist, Student
Description:
Natsu is a "closet Free-Spirit" who is only serious and straitlaced when others are around, not counting his friend Haruhi. This hidden personality sometimes reveals itself if that atmosphere grows too thick, he gets caught up in his competitive nature, or he gets caught up in someone else's pace.

Kogitsune Itsuko

Hair: Very Long, Orange
Eyes: Golden Brown
Body: Fox Ears, Tail, Fang, Short, Thin
Clothes: School Uniform, Thigh-high Socks, Yellow
Personality: Protective, Loyal, Energetic, Outgoing
Role: Fox, Student, Guardian
Description:
Itsuko is high maintenance, high energy. Sure, she'll likely do what she can to protect someone she cares about, but given her over-the-top actions, she's just as likely to put you in that very same kind of situation. Itsuko is frequent to express her "love" for Natsu with both actions and words.

Koeyume Kana

Hair: Shoulder Length, Brown
Eyes: Brown
Body: Average Height
Clothes: School Uniform, Loose, Hairpin
Personality: Shy, Quiet, Low Self-Esteem
Role: Childhood Friend, Student
Description:
Natsu's childhood friend. In the past she was even more reserved than she is now, and even now she rarely speaks if not spoken to. She joined the track team in her first year of high school, but even when participating it doesn't feel like she's very involved.

Inaba Kagura

Hair: Short, Black
Eyes: Brown
Body: Tall, Body Marking
Clothes: School Uniform, Miko Dress, Handwrap, Red
Personality: Tsundere, Cold, Willful, Untrusting, Strong, Blunt
Subject of: Curse
Role: Miko, Student
Description:
High school girl by day, magical evil ayakashi fighting shrine maiden by night. As descendants of the warrior who put an arrow through Tamamo-no-Mae, which ended her life, Kagura's bloodline was cursed to draw in ayakashi, like moths to flame, that carry out Tamamo's vengeance. The god Inari took pity on them and granted them the power necessary to protect themselves. Kagura has been hunted by ayakashi and defending herself since she was 6 years old. She's a member of the Kendo club only so she can carry around a sword case, but instead of a wooden sword, it holds a real Katana.

Winter(Tamamo-no-Mae)

Hair: Long, Black, White, Multicolored
Eyes: Yellow
Body: Tall, Adult, Fox Ears, Tail
Clothes: Kimono
Personality: Calculating, Wise, Whimsical, Haraguro, Carefree
Subject of: Death, Resurrection
Role: Antagonist, Fox, Kami, Villain
Description:
The fox responsible for the death of Emperor Konoe. For some reason, capturing Natsu is necessary for Winter to complete her plans. She even Names herself Winter to pose as the force counter to "Natsu" (meaning Summer).

Additional Characters

Rin

Hair: Long, White, Twin Tails
Eyes: Blue
Body: Fox Ears, Tail, Short
Clothes: School Uniform, Loose
Personality: Possessive, Aggressive, Childish, Naïve, Ignorant-Pervert
Role: Student, Fox, Guardian, Rival
Description:
One of the foxes from Kagura's temple that was charged by Inari to look after the Inaba family. Rin is also acquainted with Itsuko from the past, and has a not-so-secret love for her. Rin considers Natsu to be a rival for Itsuko's love. She also tends to try taking "perverted" actions towards Itsuko, but because of her own ignorance of the subject, and Itsuko's lack of interest, it generally fails.

Izaki Haruhi

Hair: Short, Black, Purple, Multicolored
Eyes: Purple
Body: Average Height
Clothes: Jersey
Personality: Pervert, Lazy, Idiot, Protective
Role: Student, Friend
Description:
Izaki Haruhi is Natsu's friend from his previous high school. The two of them were famous in their school for their eccentric behavior, and the fact that the both have feminine names; Haruhi (Spring Day) and Natsu (Summer). Haruhi ends up following Natsu to his new school.

Akiasa Kyouko
Hair: Black, Long
Eyes: Blue
Body: Adult
Clothes: Black Skirt, White Shirt
Personality: Caring, Protective
Subject of: Death, Resurrection
Role: Teacher
Description:
The one whom Itsuko promised she watch over Natsu for. Akiasa Kyouko has a strong connection with Winter, and was revived along with her. To Natsu's surprise she ends up becoming his new homeroom teacher.

Shiroki
Description:
A fox of Inari.

???
Description:
The voice that guides Natsu through his memories. They must hold the answer to all the questions!

[Khadrian]

Original Post has been updated

Hello, everyone! This will be our first update. (I would like to do something weekly, but we'll see.)

Progress Report
So how far along is the Kitsune project?
Well, the direction of the full story has been developed and is currently in the outlining process. Some of the endings still need a little work though. Right now most of the attention is going towards Kitsune: Memories, as it will be the first part to be released. The script for Kana's portion of Memories is currently being written (there's a short, 1 scene, pdf demo attached if you want to take a look at it).


Behind the Scenes
This is a section I would like to include in most of my updates if possible. Basically under this tag I'll include information about how the Kitsune project came to be what it is, and some of the reason behind a few decisions I decided to take along the way.

So why Japan? And, really, another high school story?
I would like to say something like "Before trying something new, I want to show everyone what I can do with the norm", but honestly my reasoning isn't quite so thought out. In fact, the story started when one day I was lying in bed thinking "I want to write a story about a fox" (my favorite mythological creature is the bake-kitsune yokai ). In this original concept it was the protagonist that was a fox, and he actually lived in Seattle, Washington.

That's pretty different from what the story is now right? But what does it have to do with the current setting being in a school? Well, actually there was an arc (the original format was a standard novel, btw) where the protagonist visited Japan and met a girl that was the descendant of a woman he knew when he was a kit. It was while working on this arc that I thought that switching these roles might be more entertaining--this is where the protagonist became Natsu, the setting became a high school (in Japan), and the female lead became the fox Kogitsune Mimi. Later Mimi would become Itsuko, but more on that next time.


Technical
A more technical side of working on the VN Kitsune.
One of the problems that gave me the most trouble earlier on was the actual script writing. Well, not so much the writing part, but trying to keep the script neat and easily edited while working through the draft faze. While it is possible when writing directly into the renpy script to use comments as a way of outlining and such, the act of finding and editing typos and other small mistakes was bothersome. There are some great suggestions here on the LemmaSoft forums for alternatives to use in the scripting process, and after experimentation as well as trial, I finally decided to go with MS Word.

The trick, I learned, is to use custom styles. This allows for a nice, clean, formatted script with spell check abilities, word count, and dialogue block count. (Word and dialogue block counts are kept relatively accurate by marking everything else as "Hidden Text".) I'll attach a sample of this format if you want to check it out, and if you like the idea, I can share my template for anyone using Word that would like to give it a try. Next I need to create a better way to develop, outline, and keep track of, characters.


Final Notes
I'm sorry this update is a bit lacking in the "progress" section, but I'll try to do better next time. What do you think of these sort of updates? Would you like to see them continue? Or perhaps focus solely on the actual progress of the project?

[Khadrian]

Hello, everyone! Here's update #2!

Progress Report
Writing and further outlining is still in progress. Unfortunately my schedule this week left only 3 or so good days of writing (which may or may not have been used to their fullest ...)

While the outlines of each route are steadily growing, I'm not sure how to quantify that kind of progress . The Script for Memories ~ Kana is currently Word Count 4,869. This scenario is a 3 act structure, and we're currently about halfway through the first act.


Behind the Scenes
I realized that I left of without actually answer the question I asked last time--my apologies . The information I accidentally left out was that the first time the story changed, the intended medium also changed to a comic form which would be written in Japanese; thus the setting decision.

The new setting was inspired by the manga "To Love-Ru" with yokai rather than aliens. The protagonists crush was Itsuko (now Kana) and the "head-over-heels for the protagonist" character was the fox, Mimi, who was supposed to protect him. Itsuko (Kana) was originally the fifth daughter of her family (the name is written with the characters for "Five" and "Child"). The name Itsuko was given to Mimi (a "five-tailed" fox), and with her name change, Kana became an only child. Incidentally, Kagura was the bully character and originally had 2 "friends" who always followed her around. (but I took her friends away )


Well, that about wraps up this weeks update, sorry that it turned out a little light again. Anyway, see you next time!

[lilyrose]

wow! This sounds interesting! I'll keep checking in Good Luck!!

[Charlie599]

I'm really enjoying this so far (read the script too - what you did with the styles was clever). ^-^
I like the format you're using for your updates - I might use that for my own updates (if that's okay...?)

(but I took her friends away )

I lol'd XD

[Khadrian]

Thanks! It's always great to get some positive feedback.

Anyone is free to use the same, or similar, update format I use. Especially if you find it helpful. Honestly, it's just something I came up with on the spot. (I've been working on organization lately--something that's pretty much always eluded me.)

I'll probably update the story section of the main post sometime soon, as it needs it, but I'm thinking about reworking the outline a bit first . In the next update I'll go ahead and include the template file I use for writing my script if anyone is interested, although I don't know if it can be used without MS Word.

(but I took her friends away )

I lol'd XD

Yay! Now if only I can add humor to the actual story ...

[Khadrian]

Hello, hello, welcome to update #3!

Progress Report
I was hoping to finish the first act of Kitsune: Memories ~ Kana by this update, but I didn't quite make it in time. Currently the script is at 6,900 words. Additionally I moved a 1,100 word scene from Memories ~ Kana to Memories ~ Kagura (the second part of the prequel series).

More Exciting News
Words, words, and more words ... AHH, my eyes!
Solution? Art!
We've commissioned the talented Sayuui to produce some great looking character designs (with full sprites to come). Check them out in the attachment below or the character section of the main post!


Behind the Scenes
Originally there wasn't much of a "villain" for the story, but I was pretty sure I wanted to do something with a 9-tailed fox. I decided to use the Sessho-Seki (killing stone) as a primary plot device and did some research on 9-tailed foxes. Tamamo-no-Mae is the name that came up the most, and her story blended well enough with mine that I was able to mix her in without much rework. If anyone knows anything about Tamamo, then you might know that she was a fox held responsible for the death of Emperor Konoe. This Tamamo-no-Mae became a perfect fit for the Kitsune antagonist, and even spawned her own route as the first part of the true ending, "Path of Winter", which follows her story before and after being known as Tamamo-no-Mae.


Technical
I had a little "hidden" issue with the script format I created before where I forgot to toggle off "print hidden text" so it was counting all text in the word count. Once I realized this the word count dropped from 7,100 to 6,800, which wasn't really a problem. That is until the next time I loaded it and I was told it was only 6,100 words. Even though I'm aware that those 1,000 words were only formatting and character names, it was a little disheartening to find out that I wasn't quite being as productive as I thought. In fact, the last update I did would have been more accurate if I stated the current word count was just under 3,000.

These problems aside (not really a problem) I've included the MS Word template file as an attachment should anyone else wish to use it. Because most of the text is "hidden" you may have to turn on the "display" hidden text option.


Final Notes
Next week will be a bit on the busy side for me, so I can't guarantee a very large update. In fact it might be best not to expect much. Instead I think I might use the little bits of spare time I'll have to work on the more technical side of things that should smooth out production in the long run.

As always, thanks for checking in, and look forward to future updates!

[Khadrian]

Update #4

Progress Report
Completed the script for act 1 of Kitsune: Memories ~ Kana. Although there are no stated breaks in the story (like saying "act 2" or something) the flow and over all feeling does change within the different acts. As it is, Act 1 is around 7,900 words.

Additionally I have another character design to share with everyone, once again done wonderfully by Sayuui. This time it is Inaba Kagura. It might also be a good idea to note that the designs released thus far are of the characters as they are in Memories--taking place during their elementary years. The main story will take place during high school, so the characters will be older.


Behind the Scenes
The past events used in the Memories series (some of them anyway) were originally just background information for the main story, but I wanted to create something smaller to lead up to that. Originally I wanted to do each of the "Memories" in the perspectives of whose memories it was (Kana's perspective for Memories ~ Kana, etc.) but the problem I had was that it felt like that kind of altered the demographic a little. It was hard to think of a way to write a first person story about a "mysterious" boy whom you befriend, but then become suspicious of without making it feel like an otome game. It didn't seem possible to solve that problem at first, and I almost gave up on the idea. That is, until deciding on keeping Natsu's perspective as he's being shown the memories of those close to him. Writing in this perspective is an interesting challenge, but hopefully it doesn't prove to be too difficult to understand.