Background
When the Great War ended seventeen years ago, things were looking grim for the formerly proud nation of Zipang. Defeated by the forces of the Western Coalition, they fell into a state of constant civil unrest and uprisings against the foreign forces. Eventually, a new nationalist movement claiming to restore the old order managed to establish itself and forced the Coalition troops off the mainland within a decade after the end of the war, with only the westernmost island of Honto remaining firmly under control of the foreigners. In the rest of the country, the established democratic structures were abolished and replaced by a pseudo-democratic feudal system in which everybody still has the right to vote but the vote of someone not born into a low class is only worth one tenth of that of higher blood.
Of course, with large parts of the Western world against them, the government of Zipang (calling itself the Gohzoku) has more than enough problems running the country, especially economically. Many people live in poverty, and the Gohzoku blames that on the influence of saboteurs, spies and traitors working for the foreign devils. Each week, people suspected of collaboration are arrested and disappear. Every week, someone found guilty is publicly executed.
Basic Plot
In this bleak world, Yuu has lived a relatively sheltered life. His father died during the war, and his mother took him with her to her parents's house in the countryside until she disappeared in the years of civil unrest in Zipang. Yuu's grandparents on his mother's side raised him, but neither of them could replace his real parents, and he grew up a self-absorbed and egotistical young man.
Now his life has suddenly taken a turn for the better. His grandfather on his father's side – a former navy admiral who managed to keep both his fame and wealth during the years of turmoil – recently died and left Yuu his mansion and his wealth under the condition that he never fires the head maid, Takako. This seems quite strange since Takako is still a young woman – could she have meant something more than just a maid to the old man?
As Yuu moves in and finds himself in the position as the household's master, he slowly learns that the mansion is more than he thought: Some of the maids act in strange manners, and a government inspector of the Gohzoku is keeping a close eye on the place, determined to uncover its secrets. Rumours say that Yuu's grandfather was a dissident to the government, and that he actively used his mansion as a grounds to hide his co-conspirators. However, now with Yuu taking over the household, many in the government and local townsfolk question whether or not there was any validity to such tales to begin with. Having said that, the fact that Takako was specificially mentioned in his grandfather's will that she not be fired, is troublesome to Yuu, and makes him especially curious about why she's so important. Can she be trusted? He wasn't even all that close to his own grandfather to begin with, as the shared a troubled, strained relationship. How can he trust anyone at this newly-inherited mansion?
When the story begins...
While playing, you will get to decide whether or not Yuu will tread carefully with his newfound lordship over others. Based on your own actions and actions with other characters, you may end up with one of several different endings (10) for the initial game...
Will you allow yourself to be easily influenced? Or will you be harsh and stern, demanding "favors" in return for your hospitality? Are you sympathetic to the government's rebels or are you a staunch protector of the status quo? Regardless, its made clear that the government is watching you, and is keeping tabs on where your loyalty lies - that their secret police examine your every move. The safety or yourself, your maids, and the Gohzoku government may rest with you - all because you inherited a mansion in the countryside. Will the transition to you as the master of this Maid Mansion be tranquil and easy, or downright chaotic? The choice is yours.
SPECIAL NOTE: Misaki and Reiko are stretchgoal characters of the game, as shown by stretch goals below. They are not in the main game unless their goal is reached during initial funding next month (November 2016). In addition, there are some editing errors in the character profiles listed above that are known to me, and are being fixed at this time.
SPECIAL NOTE#2: Editing errors in the character profiles have been fixed as of October 24th, 2016, and Miyuki sprite profile has been added to this list.
Character Concepts: Hakei
Character Sprites (clean-up): Bonkiru
CG Artwork: Shunkaku
Backgrounds: Ruderoo
Lead Writer: B E A N
Graphics and GUI: Atomic Invasion
Programmer: Bonesy
Music: MellowNightz and (other)
Partnership with: DEVGRU-P
FEATURES/NOTES:
- The whole point is to choose to be good, deceptive, devious, or downright bad, and these choices will critically change how the story unfolds, both positively and negatively. Based on what you do, you might get the perfect ending with the lady of your dreams and a harem of your own, or be five feet under. Its up to you.
- The early focus is on well developed, intricate, and fleshed out romantic pursuits. Further funding helps give all romances a lot of development, growth, and individuality.
- Two (2) romance-able characters (quickly expands to 5 with stretch goals).
- Story has a focus on light and dark elements, with lots of drama!
- Multiple endings (10) for main game, including perfect, neutral, and bad endings (some very bad)...
- Some story elements, are both mildly violent but more often than not, very risque. [18+]
PROGRESS:
- Art (60%) - half of CGs for demo are complete, and only remaining sprite is in the 'clean-up' stage
- GUI and Coding (25%) - GUI is fully completed, awaiting final assets and demo programming will begin very soon.
- Writing/Story (65%) - Demo writing is all complete, main story is about 25k words done as of right now.
- Graphics (90%) - Mostly all are complete, save a few edits needing to be done.
RELEASE DATE: Tuesday, November 8th (will update should any problems arise)
This will be launched on Kickstarter on that date, and the demo will be ready beforehand, thus abiding by rules set here when the project launches and I will link directly to the campaign.
My goal is to be much more active here in the community and will continue to support as many other projects as I can, both with my own feedback and financially. You can even check out my Kickstarter name by searching it, where you will see I have helped fund over 100 different projects, with half or more of those being visual novel projects. But enough of that... Here are my questions for this community. Any help/feedback/support you all give is very much appreciated. I wish I could've gotten this thread up sooner, but I felt I didnt' want to post anything until I had more. As a matter of fact, I do have more I could post here, but I don't want to overwhelm. Anywho, onto the questions!!
QUESTIONS:
1. What are your initial thoughts about this game?
2. Do you have any specific feedback regarding the assets of the game, art style, price point, etc?
3. I was debating on making the secondary early bird tier at $10 something where it would be open until initial funding met at $8,500 -- meaning unlimited slots until that figure was hit. Does that sound like a better idea? Worse? You hate early birds period?
4. What's your advice for reaching the most amount of people within the next month until this launches?
5. Would you support this game?
KICKSTARTER LIVE AT: http://kck.st/2fSVMXm