RE:TUBER is a game that brings parasocial delusion to life;
One midnight, hundreds of popular VTubers go missing inside their homes.
The only remaining sign of their presence being an overheated VR headset, and a mysterious program left running on their computers.
In an incidental twist of fate, you yourself
Are casted into this labyrinthian world full of microcosms, where the minds of these VTubers are left to play out their lives anew.
In a world designed for constant hijinks, accidents, romance,
And excessive, almost irritating fanservice,
Do you have what it takes to save them?
// // // // // // // // // // // // // // // // // // // // // // // // // // // // // // // // // // // // // // // // // // // // // // // // // // // // // // One midnight, hundreds of popular VTubers go missing inside their homes.
The only remaining sign of their presence being an overheated VR headset, and a mysterious program left running on their computers.
In an incidental twist of fate, you yourself
Are casted into this labyrinthian world full of microcosms, where the minds of these VTubers are left to play out their lives anew.
In a world designed for constant hijinks, accidents, romance,
And excessive, almost irritating fanservice,
Do you have what it takes to save them?
RE:Tuber is a homage to the VTuber community:
Formed in the shape of a conventional visual novel, you'll find yourself tasked to save those entrapped, navigating through intrinsic dialogue trees, making important choices, and following storylines made in the spirit of and in collaboration with various VTubers and creators that are themselves featured and depicted within the game.
This game series is made by and with those who adore and participate in the VTuber community, made out of individual love letters to the creators included, whilst forming a wild narrative to sow it all together. Inspired not just by the community, but by Visual Novel titans that came before it. In five short-to-medium length visual novel/hybrid games, this series aims to tie it all together under one, big bow.
★ Four VTubers, each with their own routes that can intersect or diverge, and each with one of two endings.
★ Made to replay - experience as many routes and character endings as you like - to truly save them all, you must play all their routes. But don’t expect things to be the same each time either.
★ Nameable protagonist with an inclusive choice of pronouns.
★ VN crafted as a love letter to both the VTuber community and the VRChat community, as well as encapsulating as many tropes and anti-tropes from all the media it all came from.
★ Retro-anime and heavily inspired aesthetic formed by people who love the medium most of all, all baked in throughout our art, UI and overall story.
// // //
The first game of this series, and the subject of this post is:
RE:Tuber I - Star Academia.
Iyama High, otherwise known as Star Academia, is a peaceful high school set in rural japanese countryside. Home to a student-base of homesteady and simple pupils with simple aspirations, the school boasts cutting-edge grades across all years and a compassionate teacher base. The school is beset in chaos, however, when a wave of characterful, eccentric transfer students arrive.
You arrive alongside them as the last transfer student, tasked with one simple mission; to get close enough to the transfer students you suspect are not of this world, and convince them of their imprisonment - that they are VTubers, and they must wake up from their dream of living an anime-esque high school life. Getting close enough, however, may require an aptitude of charisma, charm, and perhaps even some... Unfortunate romance.
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What we're looking for:
Our team is currently composed of myself, Empy, a VTuber and game dev graduate currently filling the roles of project lead, sprite artist and writer. Aside from me, a a creative director, two programmers and composer. We each have various experience across different areas and are currently having to fill multiple roles, which isn't ideal. Individually, we're all to some degree users of VR, and enjoy the content of many VTubers, particularly in the VRChat sphere, so this project to us is much more of a passion project that we require aid to materialise.
Currently, we're at the stage of forming up a team and getting everyone comfortable and set up, but after that, we'll be looking to make the first five-to-ten minutes of the game in polished form.
Additionally, we are not yet abiding by any deadlines - not until the vertical slice demo and kickstarter is out. After this, we'll then be making deadlines and working by sprints. For now, there is no time pressure, and everyone is working at their own pace.
So, onto business, the gaps we need to fill for this first game are namely;
★ Writers - To write routes, overviews and branches according to plot outlines.
★ Editors - To oversee, amend and correct the script as the game is produced.
★ Artists (Open) - Background, UI
As advertised above, this project is a rev share arrangement. The current aim of the team once we have filled in the gaps is to produce a ten minute vertical slice of the game along with a myriad of promo art alongside the VTubers featuring in this game, and to launch a Kickstarter alongside it to generate the funds to compensate those on the team prior to release, as well as commission additional assets.
If you join the team and participate in the rev share agreement, naturally, you'll also receive a cut of the Kickstarter funds, subject to the amount raised.
What we're using:
The game will be made in Unity, using the Nanonovel framework. This allows for use of the C# framework.
There is currently an organisation git repo being made to allow for work to be done simultaneously. Additionally, typical game dev setups are also being used, like Trello, GDocs, and so on. We also have a very transparent development discord, of course.
How do I apply?
Feel free to reply on the thread, DM me here, or most effectively, DM me directly on discord: Empy_VR. You can also find my twitter handle by the same name, if you'd prefer contacting me from there as well.
Thank you all for reading~
