The Homestead: A Centaur's Story [Archived]

[noeinan]

Glad you like it! All of the colored centaurs will make it into the game for sure, but not all the ones I'm sketching. Originally, the story was to take place as the twins joined the herd-- but that ended up being a bit much to fit into a NaNoRenO game. But they may turn up in future games, NaNoRenO or otherwise.

That said, I... couldn't really stop myself from drawing more centaurs... So I did. Even after these I have five more designed. >< Gah, but I really need to start coloring those backgrounds so I'll get started on that tonight or tomorrow. I've been putting it off because I'm nervous and am not good at shading, which will be needed in abundance. Anywho, here's some more centaurs I designed.



Aaaand here's the sketch of the hillside backgrounds. It's the last backgrounds!

[noeinan]

Alright, so I'm a little burnt out trying to learn backgrounds and decided to do GUI instead. (If you're interested, you can follow my background progress on this thread: http://lemmasoft.renai.us/forums/viewto ... 54&t=25735)

I just finished the main menu, so here's a screenshot!



I drew inspiration from ancient Mongol designs, since I drew a lot of inspiration from Mongol culture for this game. The textboxes will follow suit, mostly in browns, blue, and some white. Kind of earth and sky themed.

Oh! And although we haven't posted an update about it, Sheridan is also making good progress on the writing. ^^ We may need to limit the number of routes, but we may come back to the game after NaNoRenO to add extra content, such as new character routes.

We had originally planned two romance routes and two friendship routes for both the brother and sister, but we'll probably end up cutting out the friendship routes for now. Currently, you can only play the game as the male twin but depending on how things go after the end of March we may add the option to play as his sister. We'll see!

[noeinan]

Okay, here's another screenshot update. Currently has a placeholder background that I made. This screen features the shiny new textbox by yours truly. There is a small square for a side image, and I've been thinking about making tribal symbols to put there, showing what tribe each character belongs to-- or maybe just a flower that represents their personality? I'll probably run out of time before I have a chance to implement it, but I can always come back and hammer it out.

[Bexy]

Even if it's only the sprites colored who will be in the game it makes plenty of characters ! And two main characters ^^
I like your main title, it reminds me the effect of a tapestry or something like that. I'm actually doing the GUI and as it's our first VN I'm learning... arrr it's not easy to do haha

[noeinan]

Both twins are main characters, though for the first release only one of them will be playable-- since it's a lot of writing to get down and there isn't much time left.

[Edit]

Just finished all the GUI! Some screenshots...

[noeinan]

No time to do really nice backgrounds, but I have been doing "mock ups" or placeholder backgrounds.



And two versions of the same one that are colored differently. I think I'll go with the lighter colored one?

[Hazel-Bun]

Yeah I agree the lighter colored one fits better/is easier on the eyes. Loving the GUI and premise so far. I wonder if the twins play differently according to gender? If not I'll happily await whichever one gets to be playable come the end of NaNo ^^

[Sheridan]

I wonder if the twins play differently according to gender? If not I'll happily await whichever one gets to be playable come the end of NaNo ^^

The initial idea was to make each of the twins fully playable, but things have been getting pared down due to time limits and me being really poor at estimating how long things take (∩︵∩)

So right now it's mainly from the male twin's perspective, with a few scenes from the female twin's perspective.

[noeinan]

Yeah I agree the lighter colored one fits better/is easier on the eyes. Loving the GUI and premise so far. I wonder if the twins play differently according to gender? If not I'll happily await whichever one gets to be playable come the end of NaNo ^^

Culturally, they would have very different experiences. The centaur tribes are matriarchal, so the male, Filom, struggles a lot with gender expectations. His story is full of him doubting himself, other people not expecting much from him (with few exceptions), and him struggling to find his own way. His sister is very sure of herself, and has generally had a lot of support from everyone around her.

It was originally intended that they would have different love interests and possibly different choices? That definitely won't be happening for NaNoRenO, though, due to us being short on time. We might add content after releasing the base game, though. ^^

[noeinan]

Now that I'm not worried about coloring them properly, it's easier to churn these backgrounds out.

[noeinan]

Okay, sorry for the long break in between updates-- my graphics tablet broke with less than one week to NaNoRenO release! Because of this, I haven't been able to do any inking or coloring! D: However, I have been doing sketches, so no worries! Here are the sprite sketches for the human sisters, Lisa and Millie. (I also did some CGs, but I don't want to spoil them. )



Their clothes are based off of 1500-1600 German peasant dresses. Their society has women cover their hair, though not for religious reasons-- the humans in this setting are almost all atheistic. Millie, the younger sister, has cast off her headdress and sewn her skirt into shorts because she's a rebel. Colored versions of them soon, as my tablet should be here tomorrow.

Also, due to the large amount of writing left to do Sheridan and I have decided to release a demo for NaNoRenO instead of the whole game. However, the good thing is, we will be working together to finish the game even after NaNoRenO ends! Yaaay. This means we won't be releasing a rushed game, but a more polished and complete one. We still need to discuss what story routes we will expand on, but it's safe to say it will include stuff that we were forced to cut out previously. Once we've decided exactly what will be put back in, we will let you all know.

[Sheridan]

I'd really like to have the ability to play as either of the twins. But that would take a lot of work because it was, I think, the second thing we cut.

Also, I've found it a lot easier to write as Filom than Agatre, probably because I can get into the head of a character who's unsure of himself better than I can get into the head of a character who's confident. =P

I was about to say that's odd because I usually write female protagonists, but out of the VNs I've completed or partially written, three have female protagonists, three have male protagonists, and one has a protagonist whose gender was intentionally left unsaid. Hmm.

[noeinan]

Hm, maybe I will add in Agatre's version, but try to write it myself? I didn't think I could do art, programming, and writing in a month, but if we have more time to finish I might try my hand. I never wrote too much, but I did get a few things published back in high school. It will take some practice, though.

That said, having two different writers for the two characters might serve to make them seem more distinct-- and thus make them play differently. In any case, we'll see how it goes!

[noeinan]

Okay, another update guys!

It looks like we need some more writing before the demo is done, so unfortunately we won't be making the April 1st release date.

On the bright side, we have decided this will be a full game instead of a short NaNoRenO game! Here are some features we're including:

-Game will be available on Android/Ouya
-Player can choose to play either Agatre (female twin) or Filom (male twin)
-Two romance routes and two friendship routes for each twin!
-Game will include the following romances: GxB, BxB, GxG, BxG (though, some of them may be unrequited.)
-Game will include the following friendships: GxG (x2), BxB, BxG
-There will be more CGs (currently at least 3 non-route CGs, and at least 1 CG per romantic or friendship pairing)

Although we aren't making the NaNoRenO deadline, NaNoRenO still allowed us to do a whole lot in a short amount of time, and we'll continue making this game. We will be releasing a demo soon, and after that you guys can look forward to the full game. ^_^

This also gives us time to look for a background artist, who will do a much better job than I am capable of. I posted a recruitment thread here: http://lemmasoft.renai.us/forums/viewto ... 41#p317341

[noeinan]

We got a background artist, yaaay! Please welcome heypetdragon to the team! You can take a look at some of their previous work on their art blog here: http://heypetdragon.tumblr.com/tagged/art