Bear School, Which is for Bears [BxB] [Romance/Comedy]

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BearSchool
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Bear School, Which is for Bears [BxB] [Romance/Comedy]

#1 Post by BearSchool »

Bear School, Which is for bears



About the characters:

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Screenshots:

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Semester 1:

Download the Semester 1 demo now !

Spend the entirety of the first Semester at Bear School, where you’re the one and only human surrended by a bunch of meddlesome bears who all seem to like you a lot. With this first half of the game, you’ll get a whole lot of different moments with Blain the black bear, Greg the grizzly, Kerry the kermode bear and Pang the panda. You’ll then get to decide which one of them you should spend the second semester with, and maybe take your relationship with them to the next level.

About the demo:
  1. This demo should be several hours long depending on the decisions you might take, and covers the entirety of the first semester of the year.
  2. Work on both Mac & PC so go for it.
  3. As the first semester of the game, you get to spend a lot of time with everyone but not to date anyone just yet. Your only romantic path is the hidden teacher-student red panda route that you can unlock by being fairly insisting with Mr Siena during the start of the game.
  4. As such, you can actually play the whole demo and already get one of the endings of the game, so definitely try to go for it and download it now!
FAQ:

- Hatoful Boyfriend much? : Yes and no. Yes: the project started with a joke that I threw to one of my gamer friend, who was mentionning and reminding me the very existence of HB. No: I have never played HB and I only know the concept of it, that’s really it. I am not in any way influenced by the events of whatever happens in Hatoful Boyfriend, aside from the concept, obviously.

- What will this be about? : Your name is Arthur Orson (by default)(bear pun etymology much) and you have a whole semester to decide what main option you will follow starting of the next semester, thus deciding automatically who you will spend most time with out of your friends. Basically, a slice of life/(gay) dating sim. With bears.

- Does it get NSFW? Yes but now. Teasing or awkward/funny situations are involved but there's no sex at all, it would be a tad too weird, so don't worry about that.

- Can you date everyone? : Let’s not leave any kind of suspense here: you cannot date Pang. His route will be a big-brotheresque one. You can, however, date the others (or not if you chose not to). The game will also feature a special end where you don’t pick any member of the main gang, but someone else (thus “skipping” the second semester).

- My head kinda hurts : Mine too, don’t worry

- Will this be a commercial project? : Nope. It’s just a dumb project of mine I started to keep myself busy through those hard days of unemployment - it will not be commercial.

- How can I follow the development of this thing? : Check the “bear school” tag every now and then and/or follow this blog, I’ll try to keep you guys updated.

- Any way I could support the project? : By doing the aforementionned things and maybe leaving me some feedback? Really, feedback is so motivating, whether it’s good or not. So if you want this project to happen, feel free to let me know it does interest you.

- Anything else I should know? The full name of the game is “Bear School, Which is for bears”

- What? whaaaat I don’t even know I’m sooooo tired

- Was this game seriously necessary? http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RuleOfCool

Thanks for reading this mess, feel free to ask me anything or give me some feedback on the demo if you try it out!

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Re: Bear School, Which is for Bears [BxB] [Romance/Comedy]

#2 Post by gekiganwing »

How seriously do you plan to take your story? If you ask me, Bear School could let you set up intentionally ridiculous situation comedy and puns. It could also let you present a story that's humorous but still discusses real issues in guy-guy relationships in a roundabout way. Also, think about whether the story will stick with one tone, or change tones constantly.

On a similar note, what is the world of your story like? Are bears the only species in your world who can talk and use tools? If there are other intelligent species in your story, then how do they interact with bears?

Do you plan to include any statistics management or simulation gameplay? If so, think about how relevant it will be. In video games such as Shira Oka and Tokimeki Memorial Girl's Side, the player constantly has to think about which stats to increase, and which ones do not matter. Some other video games tagged as Dating Simulation on the Visual Novel Database are less complex. For instance, Sakura Wars 5 has graphics which show the strength of characters' relationships, but that's not the main focus of the game. Hatoful Boyfriend doesn't take its stats seriously -- the girl protagonist starts with 1 wisdom, 800 vitality, and 5 charisma -- and they do not make a major difference in the story.

Also, just so you know... there's a humorous freeware story called Jurassic Heart, featuring the relationship between a girl and a dinosaur.

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Re: Bear School, Which is for Bears [BxB] [Romance/Comedy]

#3 Post by BearSchool »

Hi!

First of all, thank you for your questions. I was kind of starting to wonder if maybe my game was a bit too "far out" and it was scaring people away and weirding them out haha.

About your first question, you can definetly check it out if you play the demo for yourself : the tone goes from goofy because of the comedy of the situation of bears being involved in the everyday life to very serious depending on the scenes. I know the promise is odd as hell if not a parody in itself, but it's just a medium like any other so that I can express how I feel and try to pour my emotions through it. Basically, drama is definitely involved, and the tone goes from goofy to serious depending on the scene. It's definetly something that I wanted.

There will be some world building within the next demo, namely Kerry's route, since it's deeply tied with the lore (and the slightly more surnatural part) of Bear School. I didn't go on long expositions at the start of the game not to be too obnoxious, but there will definitely be explanations later on for people actually interested in the why's and how's and all. But to answer you partly, yes, there are a few other sentient species, but it's honestly just mostly bears, for a very specific reason tied with an old lore.

I might try to insert a point system later on in the game, but I'll see how confusing it gets/how complex it'll be for me to make it work. I've tried so far to be as clear and simple as I could so I wouldn't waste too much time coding and end up giving up on the game because of my own motivation/free time being slowly eaten away, because it's definetly a thing that happens haha.

I've heard of Jurrassic Heart too before but I know next to nothing about it haha. It sounds funny as hell tho, I should give it a try someday. I guess games like that and Hatoful Boyfriend go even one step further on the ridiculousness on purpose, which is far from being bad.

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Re: Bear School, Which is for Bears [BxB] [Romance/Comedy]

#4 Post by bellice »

Dating bears? Count me in. *grabs at their big furry cheeks*

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Re: Bear School, Which is for Bears [BxB] [Romance/Comedy]

#5 Post by kisa »

Bears.

I actually like the GUI. It's a nice choice and not bear themed which makes the game a little more subtle. (Going by screenshots alone here just FYI XD )

Bears.

I see Mugen has been kind to you as far as backgrounds go and the bears themselves are very fluffy.

Did I mention Bears?
I'm offering commissions!
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Re: Bear School, Which is for Bears [BxB] [Romance/Comedy]

#6 Post by BearSchool »

Bears are awesome, yup!

Still working on this anyway. I'm currently writing one of the 4 main routes, namely Blain's.
Stay tuned if you're interested, Blain's a pretty chill guy.

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Re: Bear School, Which is for Bears [BxB] [Romance/Comedy]

#7 Post by YossarianIII »

I have a friend who took a Gender Studies class in college about "bears," thinking it would be about the type of bears in this game. Of course, it ended up being about a very different type of bear. I think your game is basically what he was picturing in his head when he signed up for the class.

Also, I just realized -- [BxB] in your post title could also stand for [Bear x Bear].

Finally, it's cool to see that you're trying something different in the dating-photorealistic-animals genre and not just trying to make Hatoful Bearfriend. As someone who doesn't actually play commercial VNs and mostly just enjoys weird hobby projects, I'll be excited to see how the finished game turns out! :)

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Re: Bear School, Which is for Bears [BxB] [Romance/Comedy]

#8 Post by Red-Baby »

Well... This is weird. :)

I know a few people that have played HB, so I'll let them know about this and hopefully that will help get your game out. :)

Very funny idea though. Good luck!

The GUIs look awesome by the way.

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Re: Bear School, Which is for Bears [BxB] [Romance/Comedy]

#9 Post by BearSchool »

Red-Baby wrote:Well... This is weird. :)

I know a few people that have played HB, so I'll let them know about this and hopefully that will help get your game out. :)

Very funny idea though. Good luck!

The GUIs look awesome by the way.
Thanks a bunch! I'm a graphic designer, so I tried my best to make something simple but decent-looking (I don't have a lot of experience in GUIs and all ^^")
YossarianIII wrote:I have a friend who took a Gender Studies class in college about "bears," thinking it would be about the type of bears in this game. Of course, it ended up being about a very different type of bear. I think your game is basically what he was picturing in his head when he signed up for the class.

Also, I just realized -- [BxB] in your post title could also stand for [Bear x Bear].

Finally, it's cool to see that you're trying something different in the dating-photorealistic-animals genre and not just trying to make Hatoful Bearfriend. As someone who doesn't actually play commercial VNs and mostly just enjoys weird hobby projects, I'll be excited to see how the finished game turns out! :)
I'd definitely take such a Gender Studies class har har bears (both kinds) are really relevant to my interests... but yeah.
It's true it has its similarities in concept with HB, but I tried my best to simply pour my heart out in these characters. It's not just a VN filled with bear puns and weird stuff, it's mostly just actual characters that I try to convey my emotions and actual feelings through. A lot of their issues, dreams or hopes are simply mine but fragmented and taken up a notch (for example, Rowan's troubles with being an adult)


Thank you for your feedback and your words of encouragement!

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Re: Bear School, Which is for Bears [BxB] [Romance/Comedy]

#10 Post by Godline »

Okay. This game was crazy and it's good you cited The Rule Of Cool because otherwise...
Just what?!! Haha.

This was the best line by far:
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I was really hoping for more bear-related humor but it went off into more of a standard bishoujo school route with no specific bear stuff which just seemed really weird with the bears on screen.

And it seemed off with the MC who had the big reveal that he was gay, although he isn't really gay, he's a zoophile which is a totally different thing. :)

And the creepiness of the bear's preoccupation with his human body.
BUUUT, all that aside, you had them wearing silly hats on their vacation and so I could completely ignore all that other stuff - because bears in silly hats clearly rule.

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Re: Bear School, Which is for Bears [BxB] [Romance/Comedy]

#11 Post by BearSchool »

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Download “Bear School - Blain’s route″ now!

Spend your second semester at Bear School with Blain, the overprotective big bro with a heart of gold! Get to know the big bear with this brand new route exploring his past and his ambitions, as well as his confused feelings for you.

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About this route :

* The only available path so far is Blain’s, but you can also replay the first semester with everyone if you’d like to. If you have already played the first semester, you get an option right at the start to skip the first semester to directly jump to the individual routes.
Work on both Mac & PC so go for it.
* There are 3 different endings, from very bad to good, depending on your actions - so be careful about what you do or say!
* It’s about 5000 lines long and should at least keep you busy for a few hours, so go for it !

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Support the game !

* A big thank you to Lolyerk for proofreading the game!
* Want to support the game? Feel free to get me a gift for Christmas if you enjoyed playing this first route!

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Have fun and thank you for playing!

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Re: Bear School, Which is for Bears [BxB] [Romance/Comedy]

#12 Post by Rinima »

I'm not gonna lie, this looks fantastic! Can't wait to play :)
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Re: Bear School, Which is for Bears [BxB] [Romance/Comedy]

#13 Post by BearSchool »

I haven't updated in forever, but Kerry's route is also out now!



Download Bear School: Semester 2 - Kerry’s route now!

Spend your second semester with Kerry, the adorable shy spirit bear who’s obsessed with magic and ghosts! Discover the secrets of the school with Kerry by your side, as well as the truth that lies beyond.

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About this patch:

- The route itself is ~3 or 4 hours long depending on how fast you read, so get ready. That’s roughly twice the size of Blain’s route, for comparison.
- Work on both Mac & PC so go for it.
- There are 3 different endings, from very bad to good, depending on your actions - so be careful about what you do or say!
- As usual, this patch will also offer you to play any previous Bear School content (in other words, Semester 1 (+ Rowan’s route) and Semester 2 - Blain’s route)

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Re: Bear School, Which is for Bears [BxB] [Romance/Comedy]

#14 Post by bobconway »

Um. This looks amazing. It reminds me of the garlic bread dating sim that reddit is currently obsessed with, but more... realistic?
(Also I totally recognize those backgrounds and used some of those myself :D Hurrah for free VN backgrounds.)

Will definitely give this a try. Do I need to download both the Semester 1 (from the original post) as well as Semester 2 (from this post), or does Semester 2 contain both parts? (I'm assuming the latter, based on your last bullet point, but games that are split up by chapters don't always do it that way.)
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Re: Bear School, Which is for Bears [BxB] [Romance/Comedy]

#15 Post by BearSchool »

Garlic bread simulator? W-Wow... I haven't kept up with this craziness but nothing can surprise me anymore.

Every new patch comes with the entirety of the content so far, so downloading the most recent route is always the best option! So Kerry's route includes also Blain's route and the main route from Semester 1.

Thanks for your feedback!

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