[DEMO] Refinery [KN][Slice of Life/Drama][Magical Realism]

[Feral Phoenix]

Demo | Kinetic NVL | ~30-40 min. | 13+

Win, Mac, Linux downloads here on the game homepage

Story
Nineteen-year-old artist Kouro Tomomi is bored and restless. She’s tired of life in her small, slow-moving Hokkaido hometown. But her plans to study at a prestigious art college and break into the architectural and landscape design field were sidelined by a rude shock that impacted her on both a mental and physical level. Treading the worn path of routine at her parents’ house and her part-time job at a local home and gardening store, she feels frozen in place, trapped—that it’s still too early for anyone to buy her services landscaping is not helping.

But then one day early in May, a strange young man calling himself Kuro Daiya comes to Tomomi’s workplace. Everything from his hair to his beloved motorcycle stands out a mile in this town. And early in the season though it may be, he has his heart set on setting up a garden for his new house—


Characters








Screenshots




Credits
Art, Writing, Programming: Me
...Except For The BG Used For Tomomi's Bedroom Which Is By: charmwitch
Music: CAMeLIA, Amacha Music Atelier, Presence of Music, Rengoku Teien, Senses Circuit
Extra Python Wrangling Help: Carrogath


Notes
I actually published this demo back on May 1 on my art blog, but I was encouraged by my friend Carrogath to stop being shy and post it here too, so here I am, and here it is.

Refinery has been in development hell for a good two years, and it's only now that I've redrawn all the assets to my satisfaction and updated to a more recent version of Ren'Py that I've been able to get the demo out. Speaking of which, this demo covers only the prologue and first two days of the game--the full story is novel-length (the wordcount is about 44k). You can unlock the extras (right now all that's there is the sound test) by completing the demo through the end of the credits.

You may enjoy this game if you like magical realism, gardens, m/f friendship, dorky characters, really inane conversations, and/or stories about coping with and recovering from mental illness. If you'd like to see the demo version's content warnings, please refer to my original release announcement here on my personal tumblr.

The interface is very simple, and I don't mean to tweak it too much because I am not the most proficient coder in the world (welp)...

But I would appreciate it if those who are interested give this demo a try and let me know if they enjoyed it.

I have a lot of extra/development artwork relating to this project here on my art blog, and the three main characters also have a brief cameo in my in-development RPG Maker game Uncommon Time, so please take a look at those too if you'd like!

[Broodelin]

This looks like it's going to be really cute~

I'll be sure to download the demo and give you my feedback.

[chocoberrie]

Your demo is great! Your writing style is easy to read, and flows nicely. Great work! ^_^

[Feral Phoenix]

Wow, way to forget to check this topic for like a month, me.

Thank you both for your interest and kind remarks! It's probably going to be a while before I can get back to work on Refinery since I'm tied up with my other project right now, but I hope you enjoy the full version too when it's done.

[Mad Harlequin]

I've been meaning to post feedback for a while now, but I never got around to it. Today that changes!

I'm really enjoying this so far. The writing is very polished and has a strong voice without being overwrought. That seems to be pretty rare nowadays. Too many people try to write in a style with which they are unfamiliar, or think that if they're extremely formal, the writing will be better. Your style is very natural and clean, which seems to suit this story.

The artwork is nice too---it has that familiar anime feel to it, but it's not cookie-cutter, so it has its own charm.

Best wishes!

[Doedelzak]

Sorry to bump an old topic, but this game is really good ! I hope it will be released someday. The art and the writing are excellent.

[philip]

Just finished playing through the demo; it's a nice story, and I would be interested in seeing a completed version. Been a while since the author posted, hope they haven't forgotten about this!

philip

[Feral Phoenix]

Thank you all for the kind comments, and yes, I'm still here (for a given value of "here", i.e. mostly lurking)! I'm mostly concentrating on my RPG Maker project right now, but I have been picking at Refinery assets in between work on that. It's currently about 45% done.

In the meantime, here's a new screenshot batch and a profile card for The New (Old) Friend. :')