Bliss Stage VN - Demo at Yaoicon

[Tsundere Lightning]

This Yaoicon - Against such Nightmares, trust is your armor... and LOVE IS YOUR WEAPON. Demo preview at Yaoicon!

Ben Lehman, the creator of the original tabletop roleplaying game Bliss Stage, has made it official - my design team, Perpetual Motion Games, is to make an OFFICIAL commercial release of Bliss Stage:First and Final Act! WOO~HOO~!



Seven years from now, humanity is in ruins, devastated by a ferocious alien occupier from the edges of our understanding. The adults of the world have been undone by the aliens’ seduction, and the future of humanity is now a slowly dwindling population of child survivors.



The official adaptation of Ben Lehman's tabletop RPG, Bliss Stage: First and Final Act is a VN where you are the teenaged pilot of an ANIMa - a psychic construct, and humanoid fighting machine, made of weaponized love. Your love and hatred for your fellow survivors literally forms the structure and weaponry of your ANIMa, and the intimacy and emotion behind your relationships fuels an incredibly powerful weapon. "Love shall be your sword," as Commander Preston might say: "And trust shall be your shield."



But each battle frays your trust with those you call on as weapons. Each blow your ANIMa absorbs has ripples in your real world relationships. A glancing blow could result in a worried look and a twinge of jealousy. A solid hit, in a screaming argument. And the destruction of a component, in the shattering of her devotion.

DEMO PROGRESS LOG:
Coding: 100% complete
Writing: 100% complete
Music: 95% complete; we have enough to work with, but we need to figure out where it goes.
Art: 35% complete. We have battle, setting, and character artists.

Right now, our combat engine is up and running and it's all programmed. We'll have a preview out this Yaoicon, October 29th. Maybe.

Also, clarifying right now that this is not a hentai peice (more's the pity, but it's a legal issue: Anna is 17, and she's the oldest member of the Resistance). It will get very and sexy, but in the way that Ori ~ Ochi ~ Onoe was at the very most. I will, as my gamer theory wonks put it, draw the veil and do tasteful pans.

Update. We have pixel artists now, THANK GOD. Still need character and background art, but otherwise the demo is essentially complete... posting screenshots as they happen.

[monele]

I've seen this RPG mentioned somewhere else (or was it here?) already and I'm curious as to how it plays. This could be my chance to get an introduction
(this concept art looks good ^^)

[Tsundere Lightning]

I probably mentioned it. I love this game to death.

Scenes planned for immediate work (because it requires little to no coding):

• Josh's asides about his sitch in the intro.
• Klaxons blare and the pilots scramble.
• First tutorial: Manifesting Weapons and Assigning Results
• Second tutorial: Use of Anchor powers (Meredith's kindness can mitigate damage to Josh)
• Third tutorial: Disobeying orders and forming new mission objectives. Saving Sara's life.
• Mandatory Interlude with your father.
• Mandatory Interlude with Merry.
• Choice of interludes with either Sara or Derek, her brother.
• A seeeecret interlude with a seeecret unlock condition.

[monele]

Honestly, this sounds really nice. The only thing I haven't grasped, specifically about the RPG itself, is about its length and "mission(s)" : I understand it's some sort of;.. one-shot campaign? A big objective divided into a few smaller missions, and you either get it right or you botch it and all die?
Said differently : are all these bullet points a full game of BS or just a tiny part of it? (also, will it be *your* whole game or just the first mission?)

[Tsundere Lightning]

Honestly, this sounds really nice. The only thing I haven't grasped, specifically about the RPG itself, is about its length and "mission(s)" : are all these bullet points a full game of BS or just a tiny part of it? (also, will it be *your* whole game or just the first mission?)

Your pilots undertake a series of missions, varying in length from 2 (no sweat) to 6 (pray for divine aid!) Objectives in length. This isn't a full game, just a tutorial (and the Bit I Can Work On Without Losing My Mind). This isn't even a full Mission -> Interlude -> Briefing cycle!

Each game begins with this mission, Red Alert (The entire briefing of Red Alert in the main book, paraphrased: "ATTENTION ALL PILOTS! <var>#pilot</var> ALIEN UNITS INBOUND! INTERCEPT THEM, THEN DESTROY THEM! THIS IS NOT A DRILL!") but I'm cheating by making it a tutorial. There are going to be around 6-8 missions in the full game, and about half as many Interludes as total Objectives.

About the interludes. In addition to being (hopefully) poignant scenes with the other survivors, they allow you to -

• Build Intimacy (raw emotional power) of your Relationship, and therefore the destructive power of your construct.
• Build Trust in an undamaged Relationship, increasing your mech's total hit points.
• Relieve Stress in a damaged relationship, effectively repairing the associated part.
• Relieve Trauma, healing psychological damage to the Pilot.
• Betray your Trust in the relationship. This is not normally a Good Thing - it reduces your Trust in the partner by 1 point. That being said, if you do Break Trust, you get another Interlude with someone else. But you don't choose who.

Normally, you do not get to choose who you have an interlude with. However, you are afforded a choice for every mission you attempt.

Yes, the number of Interludes is artificially limited. Consider it the amount of time before the next alien attack or mission.

[monele]

Okay, I think I get it now ^^. It's incredibly fit for the romance VN format! I'm amazed at this ^^

[sake-bento]

This looks really cool. It looks like a good structure with all of the game's stats, and I like the character designs. Sara looks really cute.

[N0UGHTS]

So, lemme get this straight: I can't be sadistic if I want an awesome ANIMa? Awww... Nah, I'm just kidding.

Never heard of the tabletop RPG, but after reading this, I'm interested. Getting to pilot a mecha made out of souls and practically shatter the psychies of my alien enemies... Judging from what I've read, this'll be executed wonderfully. I just hope the music isn't annoying.
:imagines Bliss Stage with music from Space Invaders:

Sara is cute too, but... Anna looks tough. Tough girls are more fun to break. XD Same goes for guys, too. :p

[Tsundere Lightning]

Try instead of that re-mixes of:

-Rebellion by Arcade Fire for the opening theme,
-Winterborn by The Cruxshadows as the main character's theme song,
-Simple and Clean by Utada Hikaru (Kingdom Hearts OST) for Sara's theme,
-Karma Chameleon by Culture Club for professional and romantic rival Keenan Caine,
-Death by White Lies for Anna,
-How Naked Are We Going To Get? by The Blow for Merry...

Trust me, the music is going to be good.

Anna is tough: the pic is the Seasoned Vet template image. Tsundere / Defrosting Ice Queen territory. Let me put it this way: she is very badly hurting, and in the Anna storyline you heal each other.

Edited with my personal choices.

[Tsundere Lightning]

So, lemme get this straight: I can't be sadistic if I want an awesome ANIMa? Awww... Nah, I'm just kidding.

I should have mentioned that a Trust Break is in addition to an Intimacy Building, Stress Relief or Trauma Relief result. My bad.

So, yes, you could technically be a bastard who manipulates people into sex to power up the ANIMa. The result of that would be brief but glorious.

[N0UGHTS]

Pah! I'm not a nothing just because my username says so. In fact I am a jaded, possibly subconsciously misanthropist sadist whose soul mate in life is a 6-month-old kitten. :smirks:

Anna is tough: the pic is the Seasoned Vet template image. Tsundere / Defrosting Ice Queen territory. Let me put it this way: she is very badly hurting, and in the Anna storyline you heal each other.

...I was expecting something like that, especially since cold, tough, and gruff bishoujo aren't common in bishoujo games. :laughs: Though there's Lucy from Elfen Lied, perhaps... Even so, it'll still be fun backstabbing her and seeing her reaction. Sure, I'll probably die or something, but I like seeing all the "Game Over" screens of all the different games. Then maybe I should be a tester, but then I'd spoil it for myself, wouldn't I? :p :bursts into laughter:

So you're just working on a draft of the script and the combat system? Can't wait... How long do you think an average playthrough (a playthrough where the goal is to live and end up happy XD) would be and how many endings are you aiming for?

[Dusty]

BLISS STAGE! If it is what I think it is, and I do think it is what I think it is, as whenever I am not sure if something is or is not something, it probably is, this is going to be great. And the whole "build up the friendship/love/trust meter" is pretty distinctive, as well.

Woohoo. I sincerely hope you finish! (I've never played a real Bliss Stage game even though I want to because I don't know anyone who knows how to. And playing by yourself is not fun.)

If you need help with coding, I can try helping. But on second thought, I have this strange adverse reaction to touching graphics with code, so maybe not.

[Tsundere Lightning]

Yes, it is that Bliss Stage, the one by Ben Lehman, author of Polaris.

FYI.

[Tsundere Lightning]

NOTHING TO SEE HERE

There are around 20 endings, other than Bliss Out and Die Horribly.

Including the Worst Ending, which is hilarous. This one is free: Break your relationship to Meredith in your first Interlude after the first Mission. Then see what happens.

[Tsundere Lightning]

I've never played a real Bliss Stage game even though I want to because I don't know anyone who knows how to. And playing by yourself is not fun.

Want to shadow Children of Children? In about two missions, they'll rescue Gabriel Winters, a lost ANIMa (well, okay, lost Anti exoMorph - Psychic Construct) pilot who's base was destroyed mid-mission. Who has a teeeeerible secret, of course. And you could jump in as Gabriel then.