Band Camp Boyfriend [Otome] [GxB] [Dramedy]

[Zelan]

7. Any other questions, comments, suggestions or feedback?
Are trumpet players really considered as boasting egomaniacs in Northern America ?

YES. It's definitely the predominating trumpet stereotype in North American bands. Wielding all that power to soar above the rest of the band and make yourself heard tends to go to peoples' heads...

Dear Lord, you should meet some of our trumpet players. And I'm right behind them.

[Amberbaum]

See, Flora? All those close-ups I sent you of brass spit valves paid off!

In all seriousness, I'm very happy the detail she put into the instruments is so appreciated. ^^

In all seriousness, it was the first thing that drew my attention. My initial reaction to your main post was neutral until I noticed the instruments. They took up my attention first and only then I took a closer look at the characters...hahah..ha So..yeah. I appreciate it. I guess it had to be a real pain drawing them if you aren't familiar with them. Also "yay!" for sprites with instruments in a game about a band.

I'm pleased and surprised so many have said that, I guess because I expect a lot of folks to go by the "tumblrverse" definition as you put it. With our overall cast diversity, I think we were more focused on reflecting some level realism, taking our fictional Blue Mountain High School's community and demographics into consideration, rather than diversity for diversity's sake.

I am thankful for this sentiment and glad you guys went with that. It was one of the first things that I noticed by examine them in their entirety. As much as groups or a certain amount of people prefer diversity for diversities sake (and as much as it can be sometimes a bad and a good thing), I honestly prefer a certain realism to the characters. That's one of the points that draws me into a story and gives me a certain sense of immersion that those ironed out characters often can't provide. Yep, I think it is pretty noticeable with or without being aware on how the trend goes with most VNs geared towards the female audience.

YES. It's definitely the predominating trumpet stereotype in North American bands. Wielding all that power to soar above the rest of the band and make yourself heard tends to go to peoples' heads...

Hehe . The geographical difference is amusing. Trumpet, Trombone or Tuba player are considered very chill people who could laugh the whole time while drinking beer and eating sausage. This and that you can stuff most of them in a clown costume or a fancy gala suit and it would make no difference for them. Sorta like chameleon people. Maybe it's because we have so many goofy Gugge bands that they are viewed so differently.

[Inferno]

The character design is lovely and diverse - as in diverse, not tumbliverse (gender, sexuality and skincolor - because we all know that those can be the attributes of a character, but shouldn't be their defining trait. And sorry for clarifying. It's just that the meaning of diversity got warped over the last years.). Looks like a really fun cast you have there. As for your questions..

1. What piqued your interest in this game? Are you/were you in band or do you play a musical instrument?
I played the trumpet and was part of a Guggenmusik band.

You. I like you.

It was important for us to find a happy medium. The feedback we've been getting so far is encouraging.

German class never taught me what "Guggenmusik" was, so I had to look it up just now. My gosh, those costumes! That looks like fun.

Hehe . The geographical difference is amusing. Trumpet, Trombone or Tuba player are considered very chill people who could laugh the whole time while drinking beer and eating sausage. This and that you can stuff most of them in a clown costume or a fancy gala suit and it would make no difference for them. Sorta like chameleon people. Maybe it's because we have so many goofy Gugge bands that they are viewed so differently.

I never considered that instrument stereotypes weren't universal! That's pretty interesting. The tuba stereotype sounds similar, though. Out of curiosity, what are the woodwind stereotypes where you're from?

[Amberbaum]

You. I like you.

It was important for us to find a happy medium. The feedback we've been getting so far is encouraging.

German class never taught me what "Guggenmusik" was, so I had to look it up just now. My gosh, those costumes! That looks like fun.

Awww, thanks . And yeah, those Fastnacht/Karneval/Fasching processions are fun. Lot's of confetti and sweets. The best costumes are those that make fun of stereotypes, racist cliches, public figures or recent events that everyone is talking about. If you are a politician or are otherwise involved in some shady scandals (big tax fraud, nepotism, etc.) you can bet that some fool's guild will make fun of you with their costumes or wagons. Those celebrations are a mix between folk custom (Fastnacht - witches, demons, Krampus etc.) and Court/Prussian militarism/ the French under Napoleon satire, caricature or parody (Karneval - marching, Uniforms)

I never considered that instrument stereotypes weren't universal! That's pretty interesting. The tuba stereotype sounds similar, though. Out of curiosity, what are the woodwind stereotypes where you're from?

Depends in which circles you are playing. The positive consensus I could make out that also reflects my impression on non-modern woodwind instruments stereotypes is that they are considered as mostly soft-spoken calm friendly sensitive people. They get along with everyone and everyone gets along with them. The negative stereotypes are that they are considered as boring, uptight, zero sensuality ("do they even have sex?") and that they have no skills. Then there are different stereotypes between the type of woodwind instrument a person plays. Block flutes are only played by losers or weaklings or small children, especially girls. ("You never knew true terror until you had the joy to watch a block flute concert by elementary school kids.") Clarinet player are all uptight with a stick up their arse.

Those stereotypes are pretty mean and I wouldn't think too much about it. Nearly every instrument has their negative and positive stereotypes. We brass player for example can't keep our mouths shut, are incredible loud, are drunkards and messy.

[Xandra]

In all seriousness, it was the first thing that drew my attention. My initial reaction to your main post was neutral until I noticed the instruments. They took up my attention first and only then I took a closer look at the characters...hahah..ha So..yeah. I appreciate it. I guess it had to be a real pain drawing them if you aren't familiar with them. Also "yay!" for sprites with instruments in a game about a band.

I'm so sorry but now I'm picturing someone sitting at their computer going "well that guy seems okay, but MAN THAT IS ONE SEXY TRUMPET."

At the risk of sounding like a complete dork, I kind of feel like each character's instrument holds a piece of their soul and it would just be plain wrong not to show them with it. Plus in a marching band rehearsal, unless you're learning new drill you pretty much are always holding your instrument except for on water breaks.

Hehe . The geographical difference is amusing. Trumpet, Trombone or Tuba player are considered very chill people who could laugh the whole time while drinking beer and eating sausage. This and that you can stuff most of them in a clown costume or a fancy gala suit and it would make no difference for them. Sorta like chameleon people. Maybe it's because we have so many goofy Gugge bands that they are viewed so differently.

I'm not especially aware of marching band culture outside of North America and had to look up the Gugge bands as well. Those costumes are crazy! I'm amazed at the different musical cultures that have arisen in different parts of the world. xD Looks like a good time...jeez I miss playing in band.

I'm getting the impression the band competition culture in BCB is pretty to centric to North America, probably since it branched off from football (big deal in a America, but I hear it's not very popular elsewhere). Some internet friends from the U.K. have told us marching band is overall pretty foreign to them, so we've been taking care to make sure everything makes sense to players overseas. If you have the time, I recommend checking out Drum Corps International. They're the best of the best when it comes to competitive marching and are reflective of the direction most competitive HS marching bands are going in these days. The Blue Devils are my personal favorite.

[Amberbaum]

I'm so sorry but now I'm picturing someone sitting at their computer going "well that guy seems okay, but MAN THAT IS ONE SEXY TRUMPET."

At the risk of sounding like a complete dork, I kind of feel like each character's instrument holds a piece of their soul and it would just be plain wrong not to show them with it. Plus in a marching band rehearsal, unless you're learning new drill you pretty much are always holding your instrument except for on water breaks.

I know what you mean. My trumpet holds many special memories and I start sniffling every time I take it out again. Haven't played it in years.

I'm not especially aware of marching band culture outside of North America and had to look up the Gugge bands as well. Those costumes are crazy! I'm amazed at the different musical cultures that have arisen in different parts of the world. xD Looks like a good time...jeez I miss playing in band.

I'm getting the impression the band competition culture in BCB is pretty to centric to North America, probably since it branched off from football (big deal in a America, but I hear it's not very popular elsewhere). Some internet friends from the U.K. have told us marching band is overall pretty foreign to them, so we've been taking care to make sure everything makes sense to players overseas.

Hm, the closest I could think of we have here oversees are military tattoos. If a player is familiar with them then I am sure they won't have a problem with understanding Northern American marching band culture. So far our music corps from the military are the only "brass" bands who maintain a clear grade A musician quality. Not a fan of old marches, but when they play something modern or a upbeat tune it's incredible good.

If you have the time, I recommend checking out Drum Corps International. They're the best of the best when it comes to competitive marching and are reflective of the direction most competitive HS marching bands are going in these days. The Blue Devils are my personal favorite.

I like it. Those bands make sure to play properly and aren't a bunch of beer drinking hobbits with goofy costumes like us (nothing wrong about being a beer drinking hobbit and wearing goofy costumes). Many Guggenmusik Bands are very chill and play for fun without a thought of getting better or hitting the damn note for once. Doesn't mean that they are all bad. My group was very much like: "Play it right or don't bother". So if you end up perfectly playing "Thriller" from Michael Jackson or any other peppy well known song with a brass band I will be happy.

Regarding the Blue Devils. I looked them up end went: "Great sound. They remind me of the Top Secret drum Corps......", *sees recommended video from YouTube*, " Top Secret Drum Corps of Basel meets the Blue Devil Percussion Team of Concorde California" ...."Wow, what a great coincidence."

[Xandra]

JULY UPDATE! It's been quiet around here, but that doesn't mean stuff hasn't been getting done. Here's the full progress report...

Mello -
-Finished the script draft for Doug's arc! Up next is Tom.
-Currently editing a couple promotional videos that will be making use of our voice talent! Unfortunately we've hit a bit of a snag with Adobe Premiere making all our art assets look like poo, but we're working on finding a solution. Fortunately the sprites look fantastic in Ren'py. (The screenshot below doesn't really do it justice.)

Me -
I'm happy to say programming is a heck of a lot easier than I thought it was going to be and I've finished programming all dialogue and paths for the demo. Everything is working as it should as far as I can tell, so I'll be adding in all the sprites next! That will be a bit time consuming in the beginning but I imagine that will be done by the end of the summer (I'll be working around RL Band Camp. ) More info on the demo can be found below.

Bunnyvoid -
Our background artist Bunnyvoid been working hard! She's almost finished modeling the main components of the camp and predicts we'll have some finished backgrounds within the next month. Here's a teaser that gives an idea of what the environment will be like:

I'll post more screenshots once the game starts to have more of a completed look.

Potouto -
Potouto has created a new Red Angels Logo for Peter's shirt and it's looking really legit!!:

Officially our most spoiled boy.

~SOME INFO ON THE DEMO~

I haven't talked about the demo much yet so I'm going to do so now. I've also updated the OP post with some more details on game mechanics/affinity/choices. I kind of skimped on that section before and probably made us sound pretty basic. ANYWAY THE DEMO.

-The demo will cover the first 2 1/2 days of Band Camp. That's about half the common branch. To put things in perspective, an entire route lasts between 16 and 20 days.
-Around 21,000 words long. Of course, you wouldn't be reading all of these words in a single play-through due to branching, but I think it's safe to say the demo will be at least an hour of gameplay from start to finish.
-Even though we will soon have a fully functioning game with all sprites in place, backgrounds need to be complete, custom GUI will be commissioned sometime this year, and I would like to have the majority of the music tracks for the demo finished. So it'll still be quite a few months yet. We're aiming for December. Also yes, the demo will feature some voice acting!

As always, we're happy to answer all questions about the game in this thread. Hoping we'll have some more screenshots and a promo video to show next month!!

[Xandra]

Wow, we are so overdue for an update. I'll be making a post detailing our progress since the summer soon, once I get some time to sit down and do so. For now, check out our VA Teaser Trailer we just released, courtesy of Mello-Knight!

[Xandra]

Happy New Year! We have a new video out by our very own fictional marching band, "How to Survive Band Camp 101"!
We hope this will give more of an introduction to our cast of bandos and hold people over until the demo is ready.

Other News:
-Writing: Most of Tom's Route has been completed, started Samuel's Route.
-Music: Is progressing nicely and it looks like the demo will have the majority of music intact.
-Art: GUI and CG production are beginning this month!

[YossarianIII]

I clicked on this because I thought it was Bandcamp Boyfriend (as in bandcamp.com, the indie music distribution website) and was like "Oh no someone's going to release an indie music game before I get mine out!" Was very relieved to see that it's band camp in the original marching band sense of the phrase!

Just started watching that most recent video you posted and I like the sense of humor! I'm usually an impatient reader who skips through voice acting, but I liked the quality of the VA work in that video. The character designs are nice too. Will look forward to seeing more about this!

[Xandra]

Was very relieved to see that it's band camp in the original marching band sense of the phrase!

Yep, band camp doesn't get much more literal than this!

Just started watching that most recent video you posted and I like the sense of humor! I'm usually an impatient reader who skips through voice acting, but I liked the quality of the VA work in that video. The character designs are nice too. Will look forward to seeing more about this!

Thanks for your feedback! We're really happy with our talented voice acting team. <3 The game itself is going to be partially voice acted. It'd be most similar to Fire Emblem Fates or Dangan Ronpa's amount of voice over, with expressions and important scenes voiced. Even though it'd be neat to voice the entire game, it would be very time consuming and would force us to finalize the entire script really early on, which is...yikes. And to be honest, we're fast readers too. We think partial voice acting is a nice compromise since you get all the characterization but you can still speed read.

[Unicorn_Magic]

Hello!
Firstly, I'm so glad to see all of the updates and progress!
Secondly, I LOVE EVERY DARN THING ABOUT THIS GAME! Literally, the writing, the sprites, the background art (especially, in the last screenshot you posted ), the CGs, the color theme, voice acting; I'm probably missing out on some stuff, but I literally adore this game (I'm not crazy, just a fan, I promise!).
I watched both the trailer, and the How to Survive video, they were both so much fun, I can't imagine how much fun the acual game will be I'm really looking forward to that.
I like all of the character personas too, they're so diverse, and seem like fun to interact with But, everyone's favorite boy Peter has definitely stolen my heart.
And, all the best for the demo, I'll be waiting for that haha, and I'm definitely willing to support this wonderful game on Kickstarter, I'd really like to see this game reach its full potential, and I know you guys will do great since you're so passionate about it too

[Mello-Knight]

Hello!
Firstly, I'm so glad to see all of the updates and progress!
Secondly, I LOVE EVERY DARN THING ABOUT THIS GAME! Literally, the writing, the sprites, the background art (especially, in the last screenshot you posted ), the CGs, the color theme, voice acting; I'm probably missing out on some stuff, but I literally adore this game (I'm not crazy, just a fan, I promise!).
I watched both the trailer, and the How to Survive video, they were both so much fun, I can't imagine how much fun the acual game will be I'm really looking forward to that.
I like all of the character personas too, they're so diverse, and seem like fun to interact with But, everyone's favorite boy Peter has definitely stolen my heart.
And, all the best for the demo, I'll be waiting for that haha, and I'm definitely willing to support this wonderful game on Kickstarter, I'd really like to see this game reach its full potential, and I know you guys will do great since you're so passionate about it too

Oh gosh, I've read this through at least three times now because it warms my heart so much. <3 Thank you for your thoughtful words. It's for people like you that we are striving to make this game the best it can be! Hopefully it will put a smile on your face and make you laugh countless times. I say this all the time, but I am SO excited for everyone to play our game and meet these characters. They've had a lot of love and care put into them. Again, thanks so much for your support!!! And I'm sure Peter would be thrilled to know he's best boy in your eyes.

[Xandra]

But, everyone's favorite boy Peter has definitely stolen my heart.
Those Dang trumpet players!! ;P I second my sister. Thank you for the wonderful feedback~

Added a small CG collage to the main post! To think when we first came up with the idea for this game, we weren't even considering doing CGs at all...well...WORTH IT.

We've put a lot of thought into choosing which moments to highlight on each character's route. Many of the CGs will also have light animations, although we have only revealed one example as most animations are spoilery.

In other news, Potouto has just begun working on GUI for the game and we are incredibly excited for that! As for the OST which I've been keeping secret for some time, some "beta versions" of the music tracks can actually be heard in the promo vids we've released so far. I've just recently cracked down and gotten access to Composer Cloud, so I'll be taking some time to thoroughly improve the music before revealing tracks on their own.

[Zelan]

This video has me screaming, it's so perfect. Marian is 100% my fave, a mallet percussionist and a librarian? What's not to love? And the bloopers at the end were amazing. I didn't think this could get any better but you sure proved me wrong!

Also, Peter was never my favorite but that last CG has SLAIN me.