Orc Dating Sim [Dating Sim! with Orcs!] [M/M] NaNoRenO 2K15

[Rahnos]

Yes, I saw this posted on Tumblr. I agree 100% with changing the standard mechanics up a bit, the 'press heart for sex/love' was never something I liked doing, I always preferred picking the option that my character would actually pick (yay roleplaying), but then I'd have no romance / miss out on romance dialogue.

Anyway. Great ideas here, and I'm getting more and more excited for this even though the characters are faaaar from the cuties we otome players normally go for. ^___^

[Fox Lee]

Hey, I love that you're making this! Buff dudes and hairy dudes are definitely not my thing, but diversity in romance games, on the other hand, hell yes. And I love how you've designed a bunch of visually intriguing guys, but without any of them seeming over-designed or trying too hard - just properly interesting. I really get a vibe of "I have a life outside of being your love interest" from every design. Very cool!

Anyway, I'm making sure to share your links with all my friends who are disappointed with my stable of scrawny prettyboys ;p

[Mitch]

Aw, thank you all so much! I really appreciate all the good feedback, it's been amazing. E:



I decided to slightly adjust Malgóm's look, 'cause the previous colours just didn't really work for him, I don't think. But he's still got his oddly-coloured hair and his slightly haunted expression, which is exactly what he's all about.



Only a few more of the guys left to go!

[Mad Harlequin]

I decided to slightly adjust Malgóm's look, 'cause the previous colours just didn't really work for him, I don't think. But he's still got his oddly-coloured hair and his slightly haunted expression, which is exactly what he's all about.

Oh, the new colors work much better for him! Good job.

[Rahnos]

I decided to slightly adjust Malgóm's look, 'cause the previous colours just didn't really work for him, I don't think. But he's still got his oddly-coloured hair and his slightly haunted expression, which is exactly what he's all about.

Only a few more of the guys left to go!

The new colours look great indeed! Contrast. And he seems to be the most clothed out of all of them, hahaha. It looks great though. Good colour theory = awesome design.

[Mitch]

Toying with Renpy UI stuff for the first time ever, and I've got something semi-workable - it's very basic, but with only a week left, basic will do for now.



And the last two orcs (Mystery-Orc notwithstanding) are also done! Ggorom, a seliche-orc/selkie, and Cennedig, one of the three clan chiefs, are done. The last character I'll be working on for the end of the month is Aed, the group's sole human character.

~phew~

[Mitch]

As of today, I have finally finished the final character for the Orc Dating Sim! Meet Aed, your friendly neighbourhood human! That means the full cast is done (barring the Mystery Orc, who sadly won't be making his appearance in the alpha release at the end of March), and I can spend the rest of the week writing and coding! life is great.

[Harliqueen]

The whole cast is great, and so incredibly varied! Just from their designs alone I am excited to play it and find out more about them

Also, I really love your clothing designs for them, was there any inspiration behind them? Or just the old Scottish feel?

[Mitch]

The whole cast is great, and so incredibly varied! Just from their designs alone I am excited to play it and find out more about them

Also, I really love your clothing designs for them, was there any inspiration behind them? Or just the old Scottish feel?

Thank you all the lots! E:

And yeah, there was a wee bit of varying inspirations for each outfit! I wanted to stick to Ye Olde Scottishyness but not be completely restricted by it, because if I were to do that, everyone's outfits would probably be either A Large Bit Of Cloth Folded This Way And That, or A Shirt, With Short Trousers.

I also wanted to show off their bodies a fair amount - one, because they're just plain gorgeous, two, because folk with fat bodies rarely have their bodies framed as being anything alluring, and three, because I wanted to show these guys are all very comfortable with one another from the outset. In effect, I wanted it to feel like one of the ideas behind the "bear" gay subculture at its best - men being able to show as much or as little skin as they like without having to justify, excuse or compensate for it. But there're very little historical references for that in Scotland, not least of which because it's always baltic here and you'd freeze to death (but these are orcs, and they're hiking over the mountains - they're hardy chaps).

So! In lieu of historical accuracy, I used history as a kind of jumping-off-point for each character's outfit, mixed in with the idea of creating an outfit that says or suggests something about them.

• Malgóm wears the most clothing out of anyone in the group - he's a very private person, he's got some unusual occult power and he feels a little reserved and uncomfortable because of it, so his clothing reflects that - he's mostly covered up, but what bits of him you can see are bandages (for covering his eyes during ritual), bags (for potion ingredients) and feathers (as a kind of hint to "hedge witch" figures like Morrigan from Dragon Age. Also: he's wearing a collar. All three of the chiefs wear collars.
• Sithig was actually the first character I designed, and I was still uncertain what all the characters would look like, but I knew I wanted one guy that was wearing his tunic mostly around his arms, like a stole. You so rarely see men adopting that kind of style (doubly so when it comes to big or butch guys) because it's considered very femme, but I think it makes them look coooool. Sithig's a bit of an aesthete - pigs wallow in the dirt, but for Sithig, that wallowing is in itself a beautiful thing. Which is kind of the encapsulation of the whole Orc Dating Sim idea - these guys aren't your usual idea of romantic or sexual leads, but they'll show you how it can be done.
• Brocgin's outfit came from my love of formalwear, but I wanted to show off his tattoos - there's all sorts of stories of the Celts going into battle wearing blue woad, and I thought it'd be a nice contrast that fits Brocgin's characterisation - he's an orc living in a human society, so he's got orcish battle-tattoos and a tunic that looks very cosmopolitan rather than battle-ready.
• Ror's outfit was a bastard to make - I love fur, especially fur stoles, throws, collars and boleros, but I couldn't make them work for Ror until I realised, hey, this guy should probably be wearing a cape! Which sorted everything out, really. He's also wearing a piece of fabric that calls to mind a kilt, but with a fur trim. His outfit was to show off his status as one of the three clan chiefs (also, like the other chiefs, he's wearing a collar, this time a fur one). He's also wearing a cloth eyepatch, which is a hint to his previous occupation, but also a little nod to some Dungeons and Dragons lore that I always thought was pretty cool.
• Aed, I wanted wearing the most basic tunic possible - the other guys could have wild variations because you can pass it off as being part of orc culture, but I wanted Aed's to be fairly historically accurate (but still show off his body, hence the criss-crossing lace, which are kind of like Scottish ghillie shirts taken to an extreme).
• Cennedig's outfit was inspired by things like flower crowns, which are super in vogue right now, but I wanted to try out something else - and, because the other clan chiefs had collars, I thought, why not give him a collar of roses? I like to think that his outfit could show that he's got this gentle, caring and attentive personality - after all, he's managed to preserve these delicate flowers and keep them as part of his outfit.
• Domnol's outfit was inspired by braies, a form of underwear worn by commoners in the time period I was looking at, but with a twist - Dom's a courier, so he has this kind of sporty/athletic take on them, with laces running down the side where stripes would be on branded shorts today.
• Ggorom is wearing seal-fur, because he's a selkie, inspired by the Scottish mythological species of the same name. A selkie's seal-skin was important to them, but rather than have the selkies in the world of the Orc Dating Sim be literal seal-people, I figure Ggorom's folk use seal-fur as clothing - not that they need much, because they've also got plenty blubber to insulate them in the cold Scottish coastal waters.
• Ferdag is interesting because he wears a lot of belts, which would be difficult if not impossible to tie with one hand; he obviously has to get someone to help him dress, which, when you understand Ferdag's personality, speaks volumes about how he puts his personal beliefs into action.

Phew! That was a wall-of-text that probably wasn't entirely required, but there you go nonetheless. E:

[Harliqueen]

The wall-of-text was good, the fact that each is wearing something or showing something for a reason is amazing It goes to show how much thought you've put into these characters and, honestly, I really think it has paid off!

[Mitch]

So, progress is being made, and it looks like I miiiight have a playable demo of the Orc Dating Sim ready for the end of NaNoRenO 2015! I'm only planning on having the first few stages of two routes complete, plus a few scenes of the main storyline, but all of the main characters are done, all of their expressions are sorted out, the user interface is decent for now, and there's even the beginning of a rudimentary time management system I'm hoping to expand later.

Also: I love how adorable Aed turned out. I guess you could say he's...

...Aedorable.

[Mad Harlequin]

I guess you could say he's...

...Aedorable.

Oh, that's awful.

Kudos for getting so much done in such a short time!

[Hazel-Bun]

Aed and the blue orc are so cute haha Good luck!

[EricaLee22]

I love the artwork! I can't wait til this is out

[trepiechick]

Well, I guess I just discovered I have a weakness for gingers regardless of race Can't wait for this!