Seriously Senpai [GxG][Dating Sim][High School RomCom]

[Seriously Senpai]

Seriously Senpai
(Partial Title/Series Branding)

The tentatively titled Seriously Senpai is my WIP, girl x girl, dating sim game. You play as a girl attending her last few months of Springsake High School for Girls with the end game goal of graduating at the top of your class, getting accepted into a prestigious college, managing all of your clubs to excellence, making every single student in the school happy forever and maybe if there's any time left, finding the love of your life!

Your potential love is from a varied cast of seniors from your graduating class. They include an artist, a model, an actress, the student body vice president, a geek, an athlete and a rock guitarist. All of these girls are at the top of their game in their respective ways and all of them you'll want to get to know well, because in order for anything to go right in this game, you must get everything to go right. Core to game is building the right relationships with each girl and setting in motion events that will coincide with taking care of your own ambitions. This game includes no successful route that allows you to focus on just one girl.

You play as a girl that will be rather predefined as a character but once you take over her life, there will be plenty of opportunity to roleplay to shape the story the direction you want it. I am withholding information on her and some plot details as I feel a full reveal of her would work best once I have her designs commissioned. That's a bit from off now but I will rectify this in future updates to this thread.

What is ready is a complete cast of all potential datable girls:

Art by RetroOutro

Pictured from top left to bottom right are Dee, Kiki, Chloe, Jessica, Natalia, Rhaelyn and Felicia. Here's a small profile sample of each:

Now that all the potential datable girls have been revealed, I'm more curious than ever to know who everyone favorite(s) are from these first impressions?

Dee

About: Guitarist, school slacker, sex symbol, surprisingly awkward in person.
Likes: Music, playing in her band after school, cute girls, sweet girls, sexy girls, real girls, anime girls, video game girls, thinking about girls, girls, girls, girls . . .
Dislikes: Long classes, stuck-ups.

Kiki

About: School track and field star, intense, competitive, inept communicator, secret cuteness liker.
Likes: Work outs, swimming, to be challenged, cute stuff, dressing up.
Dislikes: Laziness, restrictive clothing, stereotypes.

Chloe!

About: Excitable geek, energy ball, gamer, fun and a bit childish!
Likes: Computer Games! Console Games! Cats! Cartoons! Cosplaying! Candy! Cake! Christmas! Comedies! Cars! Castles! Canons! Comfy Couches! Cacti!
Dislikes: Boring adult stuff, bad movie adaptations, people being taller than her out of jealousy of her curves!

Jessica

About: Student Body Vice President, wealthy, respected family name, authoritative, cold, stern and by the book.
Likes: Order, respect, classic music, horse riding.
Dislikes: Disruptiveness, crudeness.

Natalia

About: Drama Club Actress, local heartthrob~heartbreaker, cool, clever and perceptive.
Likes: Performance arts, thrills and danger.
Dislikes: Undue authority, monotony.

Rhaelyn

About: Model, assertive, success driven, photography hobbyist.
Likes: Fashion, undivided attention, hierarchy.
Dislikes: Nerdy stuff, people who make embarrassing scenes.


Felicia

About: Aspiring artist, nature lover, optimist.
Likes: Lush scenery, herbal teas, picnics, good willed humor.
Dislikes: Cruelty.

The plot revealed sofar is a bit sparse of course, but in part due to what I'm withholding at the moment. Because of this, for right now I'm not really looking for ideas or suggestions to make that aspect more interesting or tip the concept onto its head, as I already have that in the works. That's not to say the plot is totally off topic limits, but it's very secondary to me right now. What I am curious to know is what people think of the characters so far? Are there any standouts? Do you have a favorite already? I'll also try to answer some questions about each of them if you have any and maybe talk a little bit of plot, mechanics or even technical details if I am able to.

Also

What do you think the best art direction to go with would be? A more polished version of what I have here in the concept arts? Or a more traditional "anime" style you would find in a lot of VNs?

Concepts from my blog.

Something more traditional anime, as found in free assets section of the forum. Purely a general idea example, no actual relation to my game.

If you would like fuller profiles for each of the datable girls and more pictures of each of them, check out the development blog at https://seriouslysenpai.wordpress.com/ and check the characters category. You can also follow my tumblr or follow me on twitter @SeriouslySenpai.

Seriously Senpai, thanks for reading!

[Zelan]

This game seems kind of stressful, actually. All of the protagonist's goals remind me too much of the fact that school is starting up again in a month. :/

The characters are cute, though. You've got some nice alliteration going on with Chloe. cx She might be my favorite right now. I also really like Felicia, though - she seems sweet. Natalia actually reminds me a lot of a girl who goes to my school - the similarities are a little bit scary.

Rhaelyn is probably my least favorite right now, but that's mostly because 'nerdy stuff' is listed as one of her dislikes and therefore we simply would not get along IRL. I do like the fact that she's a hobbyist photographer, though. That makes her seem a bit more down to earth, since all of the other character traits make her into the stereotypical "popular diva."

It's also cool that you're stretching the use of the word senpai a bit, since that's usually (from what I've seen, anyway) used to denote a younger girl's crush on a male who's an older student.

[gekiganwing]

Core to game is building the right relationships with each girl and setting in motion events that will coincide with taking care of your own ambitions. This game includes no successful route that allows you to focus on just one girl.

Interesting. In other words, the protagonist will need to get along with all of the characters... right?

I remember that in the indie visual novels Summer in Fairbrook and Winter in Fairbrook, the protagonist had to befriend everyone. Choosing to interact with just one of the characters would result in a bad ending.

A somewhat off-topic spoiler for Sweet Fuse:

If the protagonist Saki does not focus on one of the guys early on, there will be an abrupt bad ending. I think the implication is that she need to trust someone. It kind of makes sense, since the story emphasizes danger -- it begins with a hostage situation, and characters get injured early on. However, I think the story would have been better if Saki could just be friends with the other characters.

You play as a girl that will be rather predefined as a character but once you take over her life, there will be plenty of opportunity to roleplay to shape the story the direction you want it.

That's an intriguing combination. That said, how will the reader get to roleplay the protagonist? Through the reader's choices? Through statistic management or some other form of gameplay? Something else?

...there will be no scenes or dialog of characters questioning their sexualities, no “but we’re both girls!”, no “but that’s forbidden love!”, no “we’ll stand up to society’s expectations with our love”, no “you only like me because we’re in an all girl school and I act like a boy ” or anything similar. The girls in my game are gay and want to hook up with other girls.

I saw this quote on your Wordpress, and had two questions:

1. Are lesbian relationships considered common in Springsake? How about the rest of the fictional world?
2. Or are you choosing to avoid gayngst in your story?

It's also cool that you're stretching the use of the word senpai a bit, since that's usually (from what I've seen, anyway) used to denote a younger girl's crush on a male who's an older student.

Sempai / kohai relationships can exist between any two people. They do not have to like or love each other. For further reading, see a relevant TVTropes article with a lot of varied examples.

Finally, a brief off-topic thought for Seriously Senpai:

I'm curious if you're familiar with Strawberry Shake Sweet or Kindred Spirits on the Roof.

[Zelan]

Sempai / kohai relationships can exist between any two people. They do not have to like or love each other. For further reading, see a relevant TVTropes article with a lot of varied examples.

Huh, I didn't know that. Thanks for the info. c:

I'm also curious about gekiganwing's question regarding your quote, though. I don't think that you absolutely have to include any scenes focused on any of the girls' sexualities, but if your game seems to take place in this time period some people might wonder why it's not addressed. (Maybe not, though - I didn't really think about it until it was brought up.)

[Seriously Senpai]

This game seems kind of stressful, actually. All of the protagonist's goals remind me too much of the fact that school is starting up again in a month. :/

Stress is a strong theme of the story but hopefully the comedy will balance it out. I'm hoping the game will be fun but a bit of a challenge. There will most definitely be at least 2 different new game+ modes however, that will give you advantages to help you if you get a less desirable end. This is also for purposes of having a lot of route specific content, even skilled players will probably want to breeze through some games if they want to be completionist.

The characters are cute, though. You've got some nice alliteration going on with Chloe. cx She might be my favorite right now. I also really like Felicia, though - she seems sweet. Natalia actually reminds me a lot of a girl who goes to my school - the similarities are a little bit scary.

Chloe's crazy cute, I look forward to making content for her. I'd be excited for school if I got to go with any of these girls!

Rhaelyn is probably my least favorite right now, but that's mostly because 'nerdy stuff' is listed as one of her dislikes and therefore we simply would not get along IRL. I do like the fact that she's a hobbyist photographer, though. That makes her seem a bit more down to earth, since all of the other character traits make her into the stereotypical "popular diva."

I think when you get to know her, you may come to like her more. All of these girls have things going on beneath the surface.

Interesting. In other words, the protagonist will need to get along with all of the characters... right?

Thanks for noticing that. Yes, that is more or less the idea. Things aren't quite finalized in regards to how on the good side you have to be with everyone to get a good ending, but the plan for best endings is maximum friendship.

I remember that in the indie visual novels Summer in Fairbrook and Winter in Fairbrook, the protagonist had to befriend everyone. Choosing to interact with just one of the characters would result in a bad ending.

I'll put that on my list of things to check out. Going exclusive in my game will definitely not work out for anyone.

A somewhat off-topic spoiler for Sweet Fuse:

I think I can avoid such traps. I'm more into tricks than traps.

That's an intriguing combination. That said, how will the reader get to roleplay the protagonist? Through the reader's choices? Through statistic management or some other form of gameplay? Something else?

Reader choices and statistic management would be the closest ideas, I can give more specific details down the line.

I saw this quote on your Wordpress, and had two questions:

1. Are lesbian relationships considered common in Springsake? How about the rest of the fictional world?
2. Or are you choosing to avoid gayngst in your story?

1. While world building plans outside of Springsake are not finalized, I'll say lesbian relationships are very common in Springsake.
2. I would like to avoid "gayngst" type story telling. As I mention in my blog, I don't have anything so much against such themes and I think they can be important stories to tell, they're simply not ones I wish to write (or even feel very qualified to do so).

This will be a very "everyone's gay, no one cares and it's a lot of fun" type story, but it's also not without purpose. The whole story and game goals were inspired by this thought in mind, not worked around from the other direction. I don't think my story works with het romance, bi romance and maybe not even gay male romance. Could be wrong but I think I'm right and hope to just keep it fun and respectful.

It's also cool that you're stretching the use of the word senpai a bit, since that's usually (from what I've seen, anyway) used to denote a younger girl's crush on a male who's an older student.

Sempai / kohai relationships can exist between any two people. They do not have to like or love each other. For further reading, see a relevant TVTropes article with a lot of varied examples.

Yes, this is the more broad use of term that I'm familiar with and hopefully the full title will all make sense in context.

Finally, a brief off-topic thought for Seriously Senpai:

I'm curious if you're familiar with Strawberry Shake Sweet or Kindred Spirits on the Roof.

I've heard of both. Never got around to reading SSS and that game came out too recently for me to have played, I've been time crunched all year. Hope to read/play someday.

I'm also curious about gekiganwing's question regarding your quote, though. I don't think that you absolutely have to include any scenes focused on any of the girls' sexualities, but if your game seems to take place in this time period some people might wonder why it's not addressed. (Maybe not, though - I didn't really think about it until it was brought up.)

I'll say this, if I address anything the way I've had it in my head, my desired response is laughter and rolling with it.

[Seriously Senpai]

OP Edited to reflect the reveal of girl #6, Kiki.

One more dateable girl to reveal after this.

[EuphoniousChaos]

All of the girls look so cute, and I have to say Natalia is my favorite so far . I've been looking for a good GxG game, and this one looks super promising. While I'm not usually that interested in high school vns, I think I've definitely made an exception for this one. Keep up the good work!

[Seriously Senpai]

All of the girls look so cute, and I have to say Natalia is my favorite so far . I've been looking for a good GxG game, and this one looks super promising.

Thanks!

While I'm not usually that interested in high school vns, I think I've definitely made an exception for this one. Keep up the good work!

There was some reservation on doing a high school story on my part but most of the Anime, VN and Manga stories that inspired me use it as a setting and I think it's got its advantages for this kind of story. I'm hoping part of the fun of the story will be turning themes, genres and settings a bit on their head, so I think its atypical nature may appeal to people who might not be into some of the cliches.

[Zelan]

I went ahead and read through everything that you have on Wordpress so far. I like the phrase "aggressive apolitical attitudes." ^_^ Your alliteration game is through the roof.

[Seriously Senpai]

^_^ Your alliteration game is through the roof.

The full title of the game shouldn't disappoint in this regard.

Thanks for giving it all a read.

[Seriously Senpai]

The final datable girl, Dee has been revealed. OP edited to reflect.

Now that all the potential datable girls have been revealed, I'm more curious than ever to know who everyone favorite(s) are from these first impressions?

[Zelan]

I think Chloe is still my favorite just based off of the descriptions you've given us. She seems like someone I'd hang with.

If we're talking purely by appearance, Natalia's my favorite. Blue is my favorite color. ^_^ And she rocks the short hair really well.

[Seriously Senpai]

New question that I'm polling for all over my social media presence.

What do you think the best art direction to go with would be? A more polished version of what I have here in the concept arts? Or a more traditional "anime" style you would find in a lot of VNs?

Concepts from my blog.

Something more traditional anime, as found in free assets section of the forum. Purely a general idea example, no actual relation to my game.

[officeryou]

For the art direction, whilst traditional anime does have more generic/widespread appeal, I do think the concept artwork helps give the project a unique hook. Those are just my two cents, though.

[Seriously Senpai]

For the art direction, whilst traditional anime does have more generic/widespread appeal, I do think the concept artwork helps give the project a unique hook. Those are just my two cents, though.

That's been the general consensus. Everyone is split on this as I am.