Primrose Path [Romance][Drama][Otome][Mature]

[Quiet Days]

Primrose Path

Primrose Path is a narrative based game following the life of a dissatisfied 27-year-old columnist. Lynn Austen (the re-nameable heroine) is tasked with writing a PR article on one of several high-profile men who’re losing their good favor with the public. But the longer she shadows them, the more wild, intense, and unforgettable the secrets she uncovers.

The main game takes place over two and a half weeks, with endings that have long term consequences.

Created by:
Quiet Days

We're a small independent team working on interactive narrative games.

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*Discord Server*

Features
Choice-driven Personality

Assertive? Modest? Flirty? Aloof? People love a woman with a personality, and Lynn is no exception. What she does and how she does it says a lot about who she is. With these men, that can get her far—or nowhere at all. Play around with actions and responses that give a specific, yet believable, tone. Your motives are Lynn’s: stay true to your character (whatever that may be!) or play up to your client’s interests. The little things count!

Evolving Report

Your actions and choices have consequences. As a writer for a well-regarded magazine, Lynn will be able to control the ending narrative through her daily interactions, impacting how she reflects on her draft at the end of the day. Based on how you’ve played the story, you get to choose what to include in the article at the end! What you decide to publish may make or break these men’s—and your—careers.

Story and Romance Endings

There are 8 planned story routes (including a hidden unlockable route). Though Lynn is working with clients, she’s still a single woman up for a little excitement, and these love interests don’t disappoint! But life isn’t all romance—she might miss something critical if she’s too busy staring into their eyes. Explore your options and play with boundaries. How you navigate through key scenarios will play out in one of a route’s four possible endings. (That's over 30 endings!)

Main Cast

The Women

Lynn Austen (27)
♦ The renameable protagonist and disenchanted columnist.

Priya Korrapati (27)
♦ The ballsy best friend and reliable coworker.

Harper Steffensen (33)
♦ The no-bullshit boss and successful careerwoman.

The Clients

Matthias Barousse (28)
♥ An interactive-media artist and social advocate with a promiscuous streak.

Bellarmino LaFauci (29)
♥ An elite fashion designer and model out of touch with social concerns.

Samson Opeyemi (34)
♥ A powerful automotive tech CEO who will gamble anything.

Ezra Safir (30)
♥ An executive assistant and entrepreneur who struggles to be remarkable.

Russell Caldwell (28)
♥ An unconventional celebrity life coach in a personal crisis.

Jun Lau King (27)
♥ A lonesome mixed martial artist with a vengeful fist.

Domingos Azevedo (23)
♥ An internet livestreamer who lives off of his voyeuristic following.

Oliver White (27)
♥ Someone from the past who may reopen old wounds.

Visuals
- Coming Soon

Progress

*Primrose Path, is a large scale game. Small percentages are not including elements that need to be revised, but check back frequently!

Outline:
Common Route:

• Rough Outline: 100%
• Revised Outline: 100%

The Artist (Polite & Flirty):

• Rough Outline: 100%
• Revised Outline: 0%

The Executive (Bold & Domineering): 50%
The Fighter (Quiet & Temperamental): 30%
The Assistant (Cynical & Calculating): 25%
The Influencer (Reckless & Adaptable): 20%
The Guru (Lively & Persistent): 16%
The Designer (Proud & Visionary) : 16%
[ Locked ]: 16%

Script: --

• Common Route:
  • First Draft: 100%
  • Second Draft: --
  Coding: --
  • Mini-games:
  Art: --
  • Backgrounds:
    [*]Sprite Art:
    [*]CGs:
    [*]Animations:
    [*]GUI:
    [*]Logo:
  
  Discussion Questions (as of 10/7/2019)
  1. Considering we have a common route before the character route selection, how quickly would you like to get to your chosen storyline?
  2. In choosing a route whose main character interests you, would you ultimately approach them as a love interest or as a client relationship?
  3. Which interests you more: navigating the main plot through main- and side-character interaction, or uncovering character history and world lore through environment interaction?
  4. Our game touches on a lot of subjects and delves into a number of themes. What's an emotional or relationship theme you'd be interested in exploring?

[Quiet Days]

Dev Log
2019
May '19
- Matthias & Ezra reveal with additional updates.

April '19
- First Sprite and BG reveal

Feb '19
- First look at the lore, character customisation & NanoRenO
- Announced Primrose Path & Quiet Days

[isobellesophia]

Hoho, best of luck with your project!

30 endings?!
Is it short, or long each ending?
For me, i have 24 long endings total.

[Quiet Days]

Hoho, best of luck with your project!

30 endings?!
Is it short, or long each ending?
For me, i have 24 long endings total.

Hey Isobelle!
There are roughly 12 days for each route, split into morning, afternoon and evening. So each day is like a mini chapter! The endings, will also be their own chapters, with animations and CGs and scenes to play out. Although at that point there are no choices left. It's more of an epilogue chapter. So I would say they are pretty long!


- Elm

[isobellesophia]

Hoho, best of luck with your project!

30 endings?!
Is it short, or long each ending?
For me, i have 24 long endings total.

Hey Isobelle!
There are roughly 12 days for each route, split into morning, afternoon and evening. So each day is like a mini chapter! The endings, will also be their own chapters, with animations and CGs and scenes to play out. Although at that point there are no choices left. It's more of an epilogue chapter. So I would say they are pretty long!


- Elm

Hoho, then good luck with your very good project, looking forward into it.

[Zelan]

How do you feel about an older MC?: There's a lack of them in otome games, for sure, so I'm excited to see one.
What character do you want to meet first?: I don't know enough about them to choose yet.
How do you feel about older love interests?: Definitely a good thing since your game also features an older MC. I'm not overly fond of playing a young MC (17 or 18) with all of the love interests being older, even if it's only by a little bit, but this is a nice change.
What kind of love interests are your guilty pleasure?: Oh, gosh, no matter how much I try to deny it I will always fall for the "pretends they're aloof but actually cares a lot" characters. Especially if they have dark hair and glasses.
Any questions or comments?: I'll definitely be following this project's development!

[Quiet Days]

How do you feel about an older MC?: There's a lack of them in otome games, for sure, so I'm excited to see one.
What character do you want to meet first?: I don't know enough about them to choose yet.
How do you feel about older love interests?: Definitely a good thing since your game also features an older MC. I'm not overly fond of playing a young MC (17 or 18) with all of the love interests being older, even if it's only by a little bit, but this is a nice change.
What kind of love interests are your guilty pleasure?: Oh, gosh, no matter how much I try to deny it I will always fall for the "pretends they're aloof but actually cares a lot" characters. Especially if they have dark hair and glasses.
Any questions or comments?: I'll definitely be following this project's development!

Hey Zelan! Thank you for your answers!
We're really excited about having a slightly older MC and I personally think using an older cast in this game and future ones opens up the kind of stories we can tell.

That's a fair point! We'll be doing an update, possibly releasing more info about the characters in pairs! Our romantic route ages range from 23 - 34.

I feel a little guilty for having a character who may very much fit that description. Dark haired, glasses type that acts uninterested. He'll appear colder in other routes until you get to know him and figure out what he's all about in his own route. But I'm excited to write him.

- Elm

[Zelan]

I feel a little guilty for having a character who may very much fit that description. Dark haired, glasses type that acts uninterested. He'll appear colder in other routes until you get to know him and figure out what he's all about in his own route. But I'm excited to write him.

Oh man, not gonna lie, I'm going to be all over him. I'm excited to meet him!

[Quiet Days]

Hello hello!
Another update, a little late but happy to be here. Here's some snippets from our tumblr update:

Devlog Update 002

Meet Greyson
Set in a contemporary, not-so-distant future, Lynn Austen’s world runs a timeline slightly alternative to our own. Our heroine is never without her trusty virtual assistant! Witty and polite with a sleek interface, this AI allows the player to access client notes, article drafts, emails, and voice recordings. His name is Greyson, and he's here for you.

Greyson's full description and introduction is available here.

A Sprawling Metropolis
We’ve no shortage of lore and locations in Primrose Path. There will be over 100 beautiful location backgrounds to experience—not including our atmospheric day, evening, and night variations

Hair and Skintones

We're really working hard on bringing in a tailored experience. We've set up a palette of five different hair colors and skin tones each. You'll be able to create a more relatable character to view in relevant, gorgeous snapshots in your CG gallery. That’s 25 possible CG variations!

Read the full update here

Questions
We're really excited about this project, but we want to hear what's interesting to you! Here are our questions for this week. How do you feel about the skintones and choice? Would you prefer to see your MC as a side sprite, full body or not at all?

- Elm

[Quiet Days]

I feel a little guilty for having a character who may very much fit that description. Dark haired, glasses type that acts uninterested. He'll appear colder in other routes until you get to know him and figure out what he's all about in his own route. But I'm excited to write him.

Oh man, not gonna lie, I'm going to be all over him. I'm excited to meet him!

We're excited too! We're lining up the character introductions as we speak. We'll be doing a Q & A over on our tumblr very soon.

- Elm

[Zelan]

Personally, I like to be able to see my MC's reactions and expressions alongside the other characters, so I would prefer a side sprite or fullbody over no sprite. Since you have so many customization variations, though, it would be totally understandable if you skipped MC's sprite in order to better focus on the CGs. c:

[Quiet Days]

Hello Hello!

Another update from the Quiet Days team! I hope you all enjoyed a successful and productive NanoRenO. Thing have been busy on our side, and there are a few things we'd like to catch you up on!

The Process: Research

For one, did you know about our 'Process' series? At Quiet Days, we keep a Dev journal about game development in general. Our most recent post was about research. A great read about the steps we took for researching our game, and what elements of research can be considered. Of course it's an ongoing process, but this post might be of use to some!

Read the full write up here.

The rest of our DevJournal series can be seen under this tag.

Devlog 003

Now for some highlights from our devlog update:

Nanoprogress
While we didn't participate in Nano per se, we did take the opportunity to focus on the first third of our common route script!

Sprite Progress
We have initial sprite concepts done of the first three characters you’ll meet in-game! From left to right, say hello to:

The one-eyed silver fox and security guard, Arthur Talbert

You never do fail to bring up that mons—eh, get-together.

Not that I don’t appreciate your efforts! You really did a lovely job.

Your best friend and secret love informant, Priya Korrapati

Plus, I had three cups of coffee from loitering around the break room, just so I could look natural eavesdropping on everyone.

I’ll bet you lunch that all they do is like, decrepitly shuffle around a desk in an ancient, dimly-lit building and breathe dust on a bill as their signature

Your calculated, stiff-lipped glamazon boss, Harper Steffensen

The Regular has always had in-house and third-party resources to help you cope, but you overestimated yourself. Now you’re in a tight spot with no grace.

...Do you think you are the only one in this office with problems? Everyone has issues, Lynn. I know what goes on in The Regular, but I don't know why we have to pick up your slack.

Background Art

And with a big world comes a breadth of places. Several backgrounds are still in progress, but here’s a snap sketch of where you’ll be spending some private time as Lynn Austen:

This is an initial draft of Lynn’s Bedroom, where work and leisure are a shuffle away in her small apartment.

The world of Primrose is fashionable, and tech savvy. In the common route alone we have a rooftop vegan deli, a busy office, parallaxing train stations, and an elaborate 'Gatsby 'event. All of which will be fully explorable and interactive, who knows what secrets you'll uncover! (Don't worry about the art department, we'll survive!).

Writing

Here’s a quick overview of the writing for the Common Route so far:

- 98% outlined
- Part 1, Work Day: 13,375 words scripted

That's a third of the common route! The remainder being Part 2, The Party—an unusual New Year's Eve bash, where our protagonist may stumble upon some rather curious personalities—and back to business again in Part 3, The Interviews, with a hangover and some familiar faces in her batch of clients.

See the full devlog here.

Questions
As always, we love to talk about Primrose and we love to hear what's interesting to you! Here are our questions for this week:

1. What sort of locations would you like to see presented next?
2. How do you feel about interactive backgrounds in a visual novel?

- Elm

[milksoda]

I would DIE for Greyson.

On another note, your game is looking great! I love the art style, it's so unique and polished. Your characters are also very intriguing, so I'm hooked!

[Quiet Days]

I would DIE for Greyson.

On another note, your game is looking great! I love the art style, it's so unique and polished. Your characters are also very intriguing, so I'm hooked!

Die for Greyson? Let's see what he thinks about that:

Goodness! I'd greatly prefer if you did not sacrifice the condition that allows you to be! I will always be here. But I'd rather always be here—for you.

What a nice guy (gAI?). You can also follow and interact with him on Twitter at his handle: @GreysonAI! He's a little new to the public though, so we'd appreciate it if you helped him warm up as he gets used to a more regular posting schedule!

And thank you so much! By our next forum update, we'll be sure to have some more visuals to show for our development, and quite possibly some choice writing snips to drag you deeper into our world. Elm and I are working very hard. Absolutely feel free to drop by anytime to ask and chat, here or on any of our social media!

What are you most interested about with Primrose Path?

- Coda

[Quiet Days]

Wow, is it that time already? Here's Devlog #004. It's a big update!

Devlog #004

— — — — — — — —

Main Game Progress

— — — — — — — —

Coding
Coding is underway on the Primrose Path team. Currently we are focused on exploring other ways to have a varied branching narrative. It may not be with the Ren'Py engine and Python language, in the end. Inkle's scripting language, Ink, has caught our eye.

Outlining & Writing
Primrose Path is very much still in the scripting department. We have a very thorough process, where we create a heavily detailed draft outline that covers the overall entire game. It's gone past 30,000 words and fluctuates as we add and take away. After review we revise, and transfer it to a ‘clean’ outline, which breaks down each scene on a beat by beat basis. Only then do we move onto script.

We’re rather happy to say that the Common Route of our draft guideline document is fully complete! And the 'clean' outline, is very close to being finished with "Work Day" and "The Party" reviewed, and "The Interview" is pending review at the time of this post!

We'll soon be on the look out for dedicated early readers & beta readers.

Common Route:

• Draft Outline: 100% ✔

• Clean Outline: 66%

The Artist:

• Draft Outline: 100% ✔

Routes & Art!
We've introduced our routes by their professions, and with The Artist’s route draft outline 100% completed, we’ve come a long way since the plotline’s inception.

The Artist is a bisexual love interest named Matthias Barousse, a soft-spoken social butterfly best known for his interactive media exhibits—and a bit of a playboy reputation in the community. His route is a tightrope walk between perceptions of good intentions and questionable engagements as rumors about his sex life come to the fore. Is he a good Samaritan or a master manipulator? He’ll say it’s not his place to judge—is it yours?

The beguiling and provocative multimedia artist, Matthias Barousse.

This is our initial concept we've sketched for The Artist. We’ll be playing around with his look in the future, but what do you think? We'd love to hear your thoughts!

. . .

Matthias isn't the only character to make an appearance. At the very end of April, we ran a poll on our Twitter and Discord to see which hairstyles people preferred for another love interest, Ezra Safir, the Executive Assistant. Here is the result:

If you want to partake in voting and decision making you can find us on our Discord! It's not just for talking about Primrose as we're open to hearing from other devs, games and books! If being in the know is something that interests you, you can slip on in here:

— — — — — — — —

Other News

— — — — — — — —

Fan-Art!
Coda also took the time to whip up fan art (yes, our own fan art; hear us out) of your best friend, Priya, gearing up for your makeover like any other grown woman in her late twenties:

(original source)

Was asking Priya, of all people, a mistake? You’ll have plenty of time to think on that as she blocks the only exit out of the bedroom.

Lore Snippets
We're active on social media! We'll be using the #PrimrosePathVN to start releasing lore snippets. These will be special previews of lore and fictional media referenced in-game. You can get our twitter here.

Greyson
Everyone's favourite virtual assistant, Greyson, is back with his own Twitter handle! Greyson will now regularly tweet from his database as if he was your very own PA. You can check for new tweets on Sundays, Wednesdays and Saturdays. I'm sure some of you would love that.

Accessibility
Here at Quiet Days, we've been spending the past month looking at how we can be more inclusive, via accessibility. Great game design starts when these things are considered ahead of time, rather than as an afterthought. Currently we are very much open to hearing about what we can do to make visual novels more accessible. Please get in touch with us either on tumblr or via our Discord.

. . .

Are there other kinds of content and updates you folks would like to see here? We want to know! Shoot us a message in our Ask the Devs inbox on Tumblr, or hit us up on Twitter, Discord, and here!

— — — — — — — —

Final Questions

— — — — — — — —

1. How do you feel about canon & non-canon fanart from the devs to contextualise the characters?
2. We post monthly devlogs on our Tumblr, but what is some other content you might be interested in seeing?
3. Do you find a monthly update to be a satisfactory amount? Or would you prefer smaller, more frequent updates?
4. Would you prefer seeing more character information instead of waiting for character visuals?
5. What are your first opinions about Matthias and Ezra?
6. What are some ways you wished VNs were more accessible, or less inconvenient?
7. Would you be interested in seeing snippets of our outline, (essentially the game in prose format)?

{{ Please support us by sharing and liking our official devlog posts! ♥ }}

- Elm