The king is dead and the people are mourning.
The king is dead and the kingdom is in uproar.
The king is dead… and you couldn’t be more pleased.
When the beloved ruler has suddenly died after more than fifty years of a fair and just rule, it sends the kingdom into upheaval as the people cope with the loss and try to figure out a successor to the throne. The mood throughout the entire region could not be dourer. Except for you, that is. All you can think about is finally making your dreams of ruling become a reality. For you things could not be going any better. But hold on there, friend, before you go getting too excited, don’t forget that you’re still only sixth in line to rule and the other five are all pretty young and healthy at that. First thing’s first, if you really want to be queen that badly, you’re going to have to get rid of the competition. I’d suggest you try talking it out or seeing if they’re actually fit to rule. But, hey, if that doesn’t work there’s always bribery, manipulation, blackmail and, of course, murder.
To put it simply, it’s a VN about eliminating the five rivals between you and the throne by any means possible before the coronation takes place in a fortnight. My plans are to make it so you can eliminate these rivals in any order and through a variety of means but also make it so the characters will react differently depending on the actions you’ve already taken (though that may be more adventurous than I’ll be able to manage. Still, here’s hoping.)
In case you couldn’t tell from the plot, this is going to be primarily comedy (though probably a dark comedy) but have endings/paths with elements of romance, friendship and dark and twisted themes. With the exception of death/murder most serious themes/topics will only be mentioned in passing if at all and won’t really be key points in the story.
Recruiting:
Character Artists
Background Artists
CG Artists
Programmers
Music Artists
Editors
Idea Bouncers
And More
I’m not sure how long this will be exactly. I’m aiming for half an hour to an hour per run with a wide variety of options to give it a lot of replay value. I’ve brainstormed a wide variety of possible means of eliminating rivals but generally it will depend on what help people are willing to give me. The goal is to make this game reactive to the player’s choices and to add the widest variety of options possible to allow for fresh challenges and adventures each time it’s played. At the very basic level, this is what I’m looking at:
Three different categories for rival elimination:
- Diplomatically – Generally this involves talking to and befriending the rival and using persuasion and charm to convince them to step down by their own volition. Generally this causes no suspicion in your rivals.
Underhandedly – Bribery, blackmail, scheming, etc. This could range from spreading damaging gossip throughout the court to even getting your rival arrested or worse. This can cause mild to moderate suspicion in your rivals.
Violently – Murder, plain and simple. Generally speaking this is the easiest method, if lacking finesse but after each rival dies the others grow far more wary and suspicious.
- Different endings depending on how the rivals were eliminated indicating what kind of ruler you’ll be.
Alternate side elimination methods such as seducing/hiring/manipulating/bribing outsiders to do various crimes or take the fall for crimes for you.
More difficult duel elimination methods which require a lot of finesse to pull off but drop two rivals off the list instead of just one.
The more suspicious your rivals are of foul play, the harder it becomes to plot against them. For instance many scenes and conversations will be forced through suspicion checks. All elimination methods will always be possible but if the suspicion is too high they may require having jumped through an increasingly difficult set of hoops.
Potentially offering romance options for the rivals as well (the MC is not blood related to any of them) so that you only need to eliminate the rivals above your prospective romance.
