Cucumber Princess [Otome] [Fantasy] (Nano 2013)

[Klawzie]

I delayed setting up this WIP thread until I had "something to show". But it's still not going to be pretty for a bit. Please stand by.

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The Story
Matcha, our heroine, lives in Kappa Creek, a little kappa village tucked away in the mountains between here and nowhere. Every three years, two weeks after the last frost, the citizens of Kappa Creek begin what will become the Cucumber Princess Festival, where the kappa maidens can compete to win the title of Cucumber Princess. It's part beauty contest, part fashion show, and part the dirty, grubby work of helping the villagers with all the little tasks that have gone neglected. If Matcha works hard, she might just win the title... and possibly a few hearts.

The Characters
There are three bachelors.
A few friends/rivals for the title.
And several villagers who need Matcha's help.

I'm not going into detail much, not because I feel like I have something clever up my sleeve, but mainly because it wouldn't be interesting until I have a more solid feel for them. But here are a few previews of some of the characters.

Pictured, L-t-R: Jasmine, Gyokuro, Chai, Sencha, Darjeeling, and Yujacha.

You can see larger versions of the art above and anything else I don't get around to posting here as part of an update HERE in Kappa Creek's art blog.

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Current progress:
Art:
* Character art: all sketched.
* 6 of 12 possible characters finished. (All characters designed may not make it to the Nano version of the game.)
* Logo: Done. I think. Probably.
* Backgrounds: 0% (Will not start until later in the project.)
* Bonus art: May or may not have any. We shall see.
Writing: Organized; not started.
Coding: 0%

I was going to try for a super simple project. I really, really was. I am currently struggling to keep it into a manageable state. My priority right now is to get character art for Matcha and at least a few of the other villagers. Then I'll write and see which other characters I "need" to add or even want to add.

I will warn, however, that I'm not very likely to fix artwork for this project. Seeing as this is the first proper game I'm attempting to make, I'm already unlikely to meet the deadline as it is. But I'll do my best to have at least a rough, playable version of the game done by the end of the month and then hopefully I can tinker and fix up things like menus, backgrounds, and character art sometime in April (and beyond if I'm even further behind than I'm hoping).

~~~

Comments, questions, etc are all welcome.

[Nisa-chan666]

This looks really cute I like what I've read thus far, although it would be nice to learn a little bit about some of the characters you've mentioned; not much just a flavour of what they're like.

[Klawzie]

Thank you!

Well, let's see - about the characters I've mentioned so far (and in about as much detail as I'm firm on)...

Matcha - The heroine. Since I'm aiming to let the player decide her personality, she'll be fairly "open". You'd be able to make her comment in different "flavors" of personality.

Jasmine - Your main rival in the game. She's held the title of Cucumber Princess the last few times running and she has not only the experience, but also the resources to make your job difficult if she chooses.

Gyokuro - "Pretty boy" potential boyfriend. His health problems and privileged upbringing have given him a strange outlook on the world. Expect barbed banter with this one.

Chai - "Energetic, outgoing" potential boyfriend. There's nothing in the world that's more disappointing to him than a challenge taken half-heartedly. If you decide to participate for the title of Cucumber Princess, he expects you to win or (possibly literally) die trying.

Sencha - "Friendly, hard-working" potential boyfriend. He's the kind of guy that's easy to get along with and everyone likes because he's so earnest and supportive.

Darjeeling - Your best friend! If you bring her the supplies to do so, she'll make you better costumes for the contest/attracting the boys. (Otherwise, you'll have to settle for what you have available.)

Yujacha - The beekeeper. She farms sweet cucumbers and you can help her tend the hives if she trusts you enough.


Just writing this up makes me realize how out of control my plans are again. Ahwell. Something too basic would bore me, I suppose.

Off to the mines again, I think. I'd like to have more art to show "tonight" (meaning before I go to bed around 6am).

[Nisa-chan666]

Thank you!

Well, let's see - about the characters I've mentioned so far (and in about as much detail as I'm firm on)...

Matcha - The heroine. Since I'm aiming to let the player decide her personality, she'll be fairly "open". You'd be able to make her comment in different "flavors" of personality.

Jasmine - Your main rival in the game. She's held the title of Cucumber Princess the last few times running and she has not only the experience, but also the resources to make your job difficult if she chooses.

Gyokuro - "Pretty boy" potential boyfriend. His health problems and privileged upbringing have given him a strange outlook on the world. Expect barbed banter with this one.

Chai - "Energetic, outgoing" potential boyfriend. There's nothing in the world that's more disappointing to him than a challenge taken half-heartedly. If you decide to participate for the title of Cucumber Princess, he expects you to win or (possibly literally) die trying.

Sencha - "Friendly, hard-working" potential boyfriend. He's the kind of guy that's easy to get along with and everyone likes because he's so earnest and supportive.

Darjeeling - Your best friend! If you bring her the supplies to do so, she'll make you better costumes for the contest/attracting the boys. (Otherwise, you'll have to settle for what you have available.)

Yujacha - The beekeeper. She farms sweet cucumbers and you can help her tend the hives if she trusts you enough.


Just writing this up makes me realize how out of control my plans are again. Ahwell. Something too basic would bore me, I suppose.

Off to the mines again, I think. I'd like to have more art to show "tonight" (meaning before I go to bed around 6am).

Nice. They're good characters thus far By the way, are they all named after tea varieties?

[Arowana]

Oh goodness, a kappa otome game? This is just too cute! The premise is super charming and I love the character designs (what adorable names)! It does seem ambitious to have so many characters for a NaNo project, but if that's your vision for the game, then I'll be cheering you on! My one note about the art is that the characters seem to be leaning slightly to the left of the screen (though I understand if you don't have time to revisit it).

[Klawzie]

Yes - haha! They're all named after teas. xD

To tell you the truth, the only reason for naming them all after tea is because I was going to "make" a kappa ball-jointed doll (mods, faceplates, and such - not from scratch) and I knew I'd name her "Matcha". I also knew that the first game I wanted to make would involve kappa characters in some way. So it just seemed logical that the main character would be "Matcha" and why not name all the others by teas too? It gave me a sort of basic starting point for their designs and personalities and would keep me from taking myself too seriously. xD

Arowana - Ah, yes. xD I do need to fix all of those. I managed to fix it for Jasmine, but forgot to do that for the others. Thanks for reminding me. >_> I'll do that now while I have the art program open. <_<


Noting: I am working slow because I managed to pull a muscle in my back, but for-certain a progress update for today is the "official logo" for the game, which I've added to the art blog and shortly after I send this post, will be edited into the first post of the thread. I know, super exciting, right? But if I finish any of the new character art, I'll add that to the blog too as I finish the colors.

I did the sketches for the remaining characters - Earl, Lady, Bancha, Matcha, Shoumei, and Longjing - last night and will be working on inking and maybe even "coloring" them tonight. Please note that I do not know if they'll all make it into this version of the game (I may leave out some of the story and add it in for version two - the only villager may end up being Bancha so I can limit the scope of the Nano version), but I figured it'd be better for me to do all the character art together so I'd have the shape of the style for the game.

As I whined in the Nano'13 thread before officially starting - I have a habit of letting projects grow out of control very quickly. My apologies for anyone watching this thread and expecting me to know how to control myself or even what on earth I am doing. xD

[Nisa-chan666]

As I whined in the Nano'13 thread before officially starting - I have a habit of letting projects grow out of control very quickly. My apologies for anyone watching this thread and expecting me to know how to control myself or even what on earth I am doing. xD

I do that too I'm generally over-ambitious with my projects whatever they may be. I would say make a checklist of the things that are essentially to get done for the game and if what you want to do isn't on there, you put it to one side until you finish the necessary stuff. If it's a good idea, then it will survive being left on its own.

[Klawzie]

Yes - I think that may be my project tonight. I think I'm going to work from "the core, out", growing the game to be more complicated (the way I see it in my head) only after the core is done. That way I ought to have at least finished sort of a "proof of concept" version by the end of the month.

I have... ::counts:: ...fifteen VN games in some stage of progress (granted, roughly half of them are only at concept stage, but some have concept art, fleshed-out characters, and the beginnings of scripts). About half of them started with the idea of, "Okay, this will be my first game."


PS: For the thread in general, no progress updates today. I was a lump on a log last night and totally get two demerits for that.

[Klawzie]

An update, sort of, mainly to let people know I'm still working on the project, even if I don't have anything to "show" for it.

Have not yet inked the sketches for the other six characters.
Have since sketched up a logo for Kappa Creek Games. (I know it's not important, but I thought sketching would get me in the mood to ink and that hasn't happened yet.)

The last few days I've been reading tutorials, just to sort of make my thoughts "gel" a bit. I figured I'd work on the writing better once I'd refreshed myself on how things worked. I've also (ahem) been playing a few games. Supposedly to inspire me, but mainly because looking at code stuff makes my eyes swim after awhile and I need to remind myself of things games do that annoy or please me. (Okay, okay - I'm procrastinating too. But that's an also, dangit!)

I'm currently (this minute) working on organizing how various stats "work". This meant rearranging possible types of stats (combining a few, for instance) and writing up how they are earned/gained and what their purpose is in the game. This will lead to listing which stats the characters "respond" to or what places/events are unlocked by combinations of stats.

Before I sleep sometime in the next two to four hours, I should be on to writing the introduction that provides something of a framework for the story. I'm still slightly iffy on if this version ought to include it, since including it would mean I'd have to include one of the subplots I was going to hold off on until version 2.0. But I'll probably throw it in because my ego can't stand the idea of making this game and people just writing it off as "kawai-desu~" (Not that I'm saying I have a Deep Message or anything and boy, howdy, I do want people to think it's a cute game. But that's not all I want people to take from it.)

I'm not entirely sure what people are looking for in one of these WIP threads, so I suppose you'll have to put up with sporadic rambles for now.

Hopefully my next update will include the rest of the character art. If not, it may just be, "Finished the first version of the script. Will try sorting it into something playable as a story" (because I imagine the stat bits will give me a bit of trouble to wrap my mind around).

With 19 days to go, I still feel pretty comfortable with figuring out a way to put out something simple, with prettier UI and more art (like characters changing expressions) to come in v2.0. If you have anything to ask/comment on, please feel free. Though I may take a day or three to get back to the forums. (Mainly because not having "something to show" makes me feel too much like a dead project.)

[Auro-Cyanide]

Awwww, look at how cute they are, I just want to squish their little cheeks <3
This look very light and adorable, and kind of has a calming feel to it. I wish you the best of luck finishing it.

[Klawzie]

Thank you Auro-Cyanide.

I will finish it, come high or hell-water (...). >_> But while I can write a short novel in a month, it seems like my writing speed is cut into less than a third when working on a VN. I also seem to need more time to recharge after a writing session. I guess it must be thinking in "3D" (okay, not really "3D" but it's the best way for me to put it since when I'm writing, I have to keep in mind a lot of different variables than if I were just writing a story with one ending... you'd think I'd remember that from when I wrote a few CYOAs a few years ago, but I was only a teenager then, so I guess that memory would fade - or I wrote crappy CYOAs xD).

In the interests of priority, if anyone who has an interest in the project has a preference for whether I should concentrate on one of the love interests or one of the friends to have ready by the end of the month, I'd enjoy hearing peoples' thoughts. (The villagers will have their own subplots, but no endings will be directly tied to a villager. Probably.)

I'm currently sort of jumping between them as I think of things, but focusing on something will help me finish a more solid "demo".

[Klawzie]

Noting that I'll be focusing primarily on "friend" interactions for the "demo".

May not be back to the forums until I have some sort of working thinger to show. (Or I may be back tomorrow - who knows. >_>)

[Ran08]

Ahaaa~ this looks super cute! I love the logo. I hope you finish this. Even if you were just able to release a demo by the end of this month, I'd gladly play it!