seeking concept artist(s) and writers for psychological romance VN about substance use/abuse

[GoAskAlex]

Hello, all! Recently, I posted over in the ideas forum about a visual novel I'd like to create. Inspired in part by Somnova Studios' Missing Stars, a spiritual successor to Katawa Shoujo that deals with mental illness in a serious and respectful light, and in part by my own experiences with addiction, Hamaru Shoujo (tentative name, subject to change) is a visual novel WIP set at a fictional recovery high school for students with substance use disorders. The story follows nineteen-year-old Cody, a model student and former athlete, as he finishes out his senior year after the overdose that upturns his life.

My goal is to create an engaging visual novel that respectfully and openly depicts drug users and facilitates discussion about addiction, harm reduction, stereotypes, and the stigmas and barriers that individuals with substance use disorders face. The final project will deal with explicit depictions of potentially upsetting subject matter including drug use/addiction, mental illness, overdose, suicide, and self-injury.

Currently, I'm in the very early stages of planning and development. The developers I need most right now are as follows:

Artists. At the moment, we have no official art and no established art style to match. I'd like to try something other than the typical anime-esque art style for this visual novel, but other than that, I'm open to considering just about any cartoon or realistic art style. Right now, I'd mainly just need you to draw up some concept art of the main cast and possibly help with designing and drawing up a few side characters. If you're interested and you have any examples of your art style, I'd love to see them.

Writers. Right now, I have a basic idea of where the story will go and what some of the routes might look like. While I certainly wouldn't mind plotting and writing the entire story on my own, I would also be more than happy to have a few additional writers on board to help flesh out the main cast, expand upon the plot, and/or write parts of the script. I'd be especially interested in working with other writers who have experience with drug addiction, mental illness, and/or harm reduction, but this is certainly open to anyone who's interested.

Note that this is a freeware, non-profit project. All devs are unpaid, we won't be hosting any sort of Patreon or Kickstarter fundraisers, and in the even that we decide to release the finished game as a "pay what you want" title, all proceeds will go to a harm reduction charity.

If you'd like to join the Hamaru Shoujo team, you can contact me here or via Discord @ GoAskAlex#5861. Thank you for your interest!

[arty]

Sent you a discord friend request. I'm curious about this project.

[OceanEricson]

I sent you a friend request too. I had one look at your idea, and I know I want to work with you.

[GoAskAlex]

Update: we are no longer looking for writers at this time, but we are still in need of concept/sprite/background artists.

[black polar bear]

Sending discord request, if you are still looking for an artist I could help