[Mystery/Friendship VN] Withering Blossoms

[Lumen_Astrum]

Thank you so much, Joey! :'D I'm glad somebody's actually looking at the wall of posts I spam almost everyday. XD

To make this post feel a bit... relevant, here's an updated version of Maria:



For the people who cares (lol), what do you think? Does she look too different from my first design? X_X

Next stuff will be Sirius and Cetus sketches!

[HikkiPanda]

yah, she is different, but this one is much better . Your skill improved a lot lol

[Lumen_Astrum]

yah, she is different, but this one is much better . Your skill improved a lot lol

I'm glad. ^_^ I was really thinking shorter hair will bring out her face more.

~
Aaaand just as promised, here's Sirius and Cetus!



I changed Sirius' hairstyle a little so it'd be out of the way. Yep, Sirius is that small and Cetus is that tall. As Pascual said to Cetus,

"Hey, it's not my fault you're as tall as a giraffe!"

Yeah, pretty much like that. Anywaaaaay...

Cetus' sprite will be cropped, so please don't care about the lower parts (lol, why did it sound so funny), but I'm still not so sure about that face. >_< He looks like a mix between a loli and a handsome guy, which should be good, but just simply isn't. Plus it looked horribly different from the past sprite, so I was thinking otherwise to redraw her like what I did on Maria. Guys, do you think I should stick on the original look (the one on the first post) or keep this one?

Next up is either finished sprite lineart/s or the next batch of sprite sketches, so stay tuned. :3

Okay, an update. Sirius' sprite lineart is doooone~ :'D

I really think her hair looks horribly different from her usual hair back at S&H... what do you guys think? I can still tweak it a bit before I get it colored~

[Lumen_Astrum]

Bumping a bit.

I got Sirius' story arc half-finished (in terms of the plot, not on the script) and had a vague idea on what Pascual's will be like.

Expect lots of drama and bloody stuff. Probably a lot more bloodier than Twin Faces. And yes, someone will die.

Sorry guys, I'm on sadist mode. XD
Now finding my next victim...

The demo might only be some sort of introduction, and will not really show the entire thing. It's just like azureXtwilight's Doppelganger. It sounds so nice in the beginning, and it will surely make you shit bricks somewhere midway.

Yeah, something like that. She surely had influenced my writing style in a way.

Since I have nothing to show you story-wise, please just comment art-wise. XD

[Lumen_Astrum]

Bumping again.

Edited the first post a bit and modified synopsis a little to make it a little nearer on what I have in mind.

It doesn't really focus on the rebellion that much anymore but Milice. So... XD

[Reikun]

Hehe *U* I'll have to go play Soul & Heart and then Twin Faces after my finals week xD;;;;; OTL
Then I'll work on the faction symbols more! :3

Great progress on the linearts Lumen! *U* But did you forget to erase their necks a bit where it should be covered by the collar? (Or are those tangent lines where the neck ends and a line on the uniform begins?) Or are the collars transparent? :0

[Lumen_Astrum]

Hehe *U* I'll have to go play Soul & Heart and then Twin Faces after my finals week xD;;;;; OTL
Then I'll work on the faction symbols more! :3

Great progress on the linearts Lumen! *U* But did you forget to erase their necks a bit where it should be covered by the collar? (Or are those tangent lines where the neck ends and a line on the uniform begins?) Or are the collars transparent? :0

Ah, those. The head -- including the entire face, the hair, and the nose -- are all in one layer, and since most/all of them are gonna have several outfits, each outfit's also in a separate layer. I finish drawing the head layers somewhere on the neck area, then redraw each outfit in a new layer from the neck area too. XDD Coloring the outfits will be above the head stuff, so the end result will have the lines cleaner. :3

Thank you so much for the help! I really appreciate it.

[Lumen_Astrum]

Finished the demo draft and got a couple of points in the mystery cases done. Will be finishing everything before I move on into making another case. azureXtwilight will be helping me to detect plot holes so I can get rid of them.

So that I won't get guilty hiding stuff from you guys, here's a little teaser (things can change a bit):

"Come on, Cetus. It's just a meeting. It's like they'll really punish you for doing something heroic."
"That's the point. Those people are really twisted. I just have to make up for what I did and the best they can do is give me some suspension or some odd job."
"You don't have to worry! Didn't Yuna update you? Sirius talked to them and seems to have calmed them down though. I guess you can relax for now."
"I always get a kick of espresso, Al. I never relax."
"Yeah. I get the point. Now can you stop making me some shooting target and get that gun off my face?"
"I thought you wanted it longer when you asked me if I'm all right."

[Lumen_Astrum]

Teaser images~



"B-brother."
"Why...? What's the matter?"
"...I-I envy you. Everyone likes you and all that. Nobody even listens to what I say. They all think of me as some stereotypical nerd that won't have friends."
"Don't be envious, my little brother. Even though nobody listens to you, at least you even have the right to say things. Nobody also listens to me and my opinions because I don't say any. Soon you'll have everything you wish for... maybe even a lover I can't have."




"I'm sorry, the hospital rooms are full. But I can accommodate you here."
"I pretty much know they aren't. But it's okay, I'll stay here."
"...I'm sorry for the trouble, sir."
"It's okay. It's kind enough you even helped me. I would have died now, and I owe you my life."



"You're not a faith person, take it off! It's a priestess' uniform you're wearing!"
"Will it matter? I'm only wearing their outfits mom, right? I'm not one of them mom. I'm only wearing what they wear because it looks very nice."
"TAKE IT OFF!"
"But to be honest, I like them more. They're kinder than you are, mom. You never loved me."

[Lumen_Astrum]

Code: Select all

Statistics:

The game contains 344 screens of dialogue.
These screens contain a total of 5,281 words,
for an average of 15.4 words per screen.
The game contains 2 menus.

Yep. This is after I’ve done the “introductions” for Pascual, Sirius, and Yuna. Casual canteen scene is done, onto business! I may still add something in the introductions, but I don’t want it to be longer. XD Gonna ask somebody to color the sprites so I can put the quickly in the game. :3

I'm also thinking of having a dialogue system. It's a little similar to Loren RPG's, but it's... yep. Slightly different. I'll finish drafting the dialogue system first before I tell you guys. :3

[Lumen_Astrum]

Image updates!



Oh god finally a Withering Blossoms update with an image in it

Sirius in her casual outfit, along with one of her trademark frowns. She isn’t really a fashionable person, so she picks her outfits according to comfort. The sleeveless shirt and the short skirt for circulation of air, while that cape thingie is something so her outfit won’t be that revealing.

Bandages on her left arm, a baller band that says “infinity & beyond <3” and a watch on her right arm.

I just can’t think of anything decent to put there orz



Another sprite update! This time, it’s Yuna’s casual outfit, and she’s making, more or less, the most pained expression you’ll see her into. I’ve edited her eyes since I myself find them pretty creepy. XD

Yuna’s not really great at picking clothes, so she ends up doing a mix&match of her clothes. She likes violet, so she have some “transluscent” cloth with such hue. She doesn’t like skirts since she finds them restrictive (even the short ones for some reason), so she sticks to either brown, black or white pants/shorts.

She wears an analog watch as a necklace.



Finished Cetus sprite lineart. Badge still missing. /bitchplease

I suppose she doesn’t look that bored anymore XD But dat smile. I can still try editing since she looks quite different from the S&H sprite…



This is done for fun, and to see how much I improved. XD It's a side-by-side comparison of sprites from S&H and the sprite lineart for Withering Blossoms. I know they look VERY far apart, since I had “improved”. But I have to keep Sirius’ look from S&H even just a little bit and the same applies to Cetus and Daena, and with my new style, I don’t know how to do that… Do you guys have any ideas?

Comments? Critique? Feel free!

[Nuxill]

I think it would just be a matter of making the hair styles a bit more similar to the original sprites, since you don't use face shape or body type to tell your characters apart. It'll probably be better when you color them in as well.

[Lumen_Astrum]

Ah, yeah. The hairstyles. XD I was thinking of giving each of them haircuts to represent their changes but I think it didn't work out that much. XD Thanks a lot!

[Nuxill]

I think giving your characters hair cuts to represent changes is a good idea! Maybe just... not so drastic as the ones you've already made. Or just wait until you color the characters and see how things turn out then; since their eye colors are all different it should be easy to tell who is who that way.

[Reikun]

Hope you don't mind the red/blue lines (.___.);;; (and I hope you can read my hand-writing). I think the main thing is that Sirius' hairstyle changed SUPER dramatically. Without color she is unrecognizable next to her S&H sprite. I think if you want to keep them looking more similar to their S&H sprites, try to keep tell-tale features in the same places.

I did this before seeing your post about using haircuts to represent change in the characters... xD;; OTL In that case, I think I would suggest giving Sirius back at least one of her side hair-tie things because I think that feature is what made her standout compared to the rest of the cast in S&H.