Ignis VN [Medieval|Fantasy|Fairytale Inspired][DEMO]

[skai2blue4u]

"It seems that a tragedy will occur in one... two... seven days."

A story inspired by the tale of Cinderella and what became of the prince after he made the very troubling decision of marrying a mystery woman he had only known for less than a whole night.

BACKGROUND

Ignis is a visual novel created using Ren'Py visual novel engine. I've been poking around with Ren'Py for about six years now although I would say I'm still new to it and working on this game has been the learning experience I've needed. I've had a lot of failed big scale projects that I didn't finish before because I've written myself into a corner or school projects got the better of me or that I just thought that my art wasn't good enough so this time I decided to start smaller! Ignis will be set in a time crunch of seven short days because our main character would have to be fighting his fate on "the tragedy that will occur" on the seventh day. Expect four endings and five routes that will spell out the fate of our king in the end.

STORY
Ever since the marriage of King Idris to a woman of low birth he met at the Annual Grand Ball, his hold over his kingdom has steadily slipped from his fingertips. Queen Ella's intelligence and cunning has caused the kingdom to flourish in ways it never has in generations passed. However, this rendered the king as an accessory to the throne, confidence in his authority gone, and that's not even the worst part. Four years after their marriage, while the two are seen to be getting ready for the Annual Grand Ball that will happen on the Friday of November 13th, King Idris gets a prediction a week prior that a tragedy will occur on the same day.

THE CREATOR
That would be me, hello I'm Skai! I started working on this game without any idea on how to get people to see it oh what a fool I was! But hey, now I realized I could try posting it here on this website I've been relying on for years when it comes to Ren'Py. Although, I will admit that it took me awhile to get the courage to post as I am pretty shy. All of that aside! Ignis is a passion project of mine that I started for the Winter My First Game Jam of 2019 and it's the first of a series of games I plan to do in the future that are all set in the same universe. I've decided to make these games as I am passionate about storytelling and I can't afford film school anymore so I dropped out and I'm now looking for a school that would accept me as I pursue Computer Science. This unfortunate event led me to have enough free time to focus on my personal projects for awhile and I'm very happy about that! I've set Ignis to come out by the end of July but I'm holding out til 2020. We'll see where this goes!

LINKS

Here's all my links if you're interested! Although, I'm really only active on twitter for the most part.

• Twitter

• Itch.io

• DeviantArt

You can find the demo to Ignis here.

Apart from that, I got all my music from Incompetech, Purple-Planet, and Free Music Archive. I suggest you check these sites out if you're looking for free music to use for your games!

THIS THREAD
Well, as I've mentioned above, I'm new to these kinds of things so I'm not really sure how I'd go about this. Still, I'll start off by saying I'd be using this thread to post updates on my game. I'd love to hear your feedback if you look at it or play the demo. I'm working on this all alone so I might be a little slow and not be able to follow the deadlines I set for myself but I'm trying! That being said, if you have any thoughts about the story, the characters, questions, etc. don't hesitate to share them with me! I'd be happy to share my work with an audience and I can only hope I don't fall short!

[FerventWriter]

Ah I just finished your demo and it was amazing! I filled out the questions you posted on the itch.io page too, so here they are:

- Did you enjoy it overall?
Yes!!!! All the characters seem pretty fleshed out, and you can tell each of their personalities. I also think your idea of twisting the fairy tale of Cinderella is great too-it's really interested me so far. Ella's character isn't my favorite, but she's really compelling. I also like that you gave Idris a personality that isn't just a blank slate-he has his own traits, thoughts, and actions, and not everything is completely controlled by the player. All in all, it was a fun and interesting play, and I can't wait for the full release soon!

- Who was your favorite character?
I was really interested in Ember's brother, the circus master. He seems really mysterious, which is typically the character I'm into, and I'm curious to see how he already knows Idris. That, and he seems like a genuinely sweet and playful character that I would like to get to know!

- Which was your favorite route?
I think the route of actually going to the circus and learning more about Ember and her brother interested me the most. There's still a lot of unknown there, and they're both really funny, even if Ember is a bit promiscuous.

- Anything I could improve on for my next game?
Everything looks great! Some of the phrasing is a little odd, but that might just be because of the time period you're trying to capture. If it's not though, I would recommend getting a proofreader or even just a friend to read over your writing to help with any mistakes or odd bits!

- Anything else you want to tell me?
Just that you've done an amazing job, especially for your first fully done game!

[skai2blue4u]

Thank you so much for taking the time to answer the feedback questions I really appreciate it and it really motivates me to work harder on the VN!

I'm a writer at the core of it all so being told that the characters seem fleshed out from the short amount of screen time they each had so far for the demo is amazing to me! I tried my best to have Idris be a flawed protagonist who really needed to fix his life if he really wanted to save himself. I'm sure I still have a long way to go when it comes to the writing department but this is a start and I'm happy to look over my writing or have a friend help me out with it to make it better in any way I can.

Apart from that I'd also like to note that I made a few edits to the script since posting this demo. I have made a few minor changes like incorporating world building and such as a foundation for my future projects and I even went as far as to change Lilith's name to Lilly as I will have a character appearing in later issues called Lilith and she will be very prominent in this universe.

That being said, I'm glad you liked Enzo as he's also one of my favorite characters in this story! Thank you so much again for giving feedback!

[skai2blue4u]

CHARACTERS

"I am called Idris Regalis, son of the late King Ignatius Regalis the Learned, reigning ruler of the mountainous kingdom of Cadair."

"Ella is the queen this kingdom deserves and I will be remembered as the king who made it possible for such a queen to reign."

"I will be what Cadair needs for a queen."

"Women of my caliber are not as difficult to find as you might believe."

"We truly are not children anymore. If only we could return to a simpler time."

"One must know when to run and when to stand their ground, but all humans crave simplicity. All of us crave peace."

"People are cruel, and they will be cruel to you despite having nothing but gratification to gain from it."

"I believe I’ve mentioned that honesty goes a long way."

"When you treated her as an equal, did she not abuse your kindness? Did she not usurp your power? Did she not siphon your confidence?"

"You are not worthless, my lord. You simply refuse to see your worth."

"...the queen she... she is not the one with royal blood. I hope you remember that."

"High society cotillions are not for the common folk like me."

"Were you not satisfied with my show earlier? I thought I put on a pretty solid performance."

"I have never been to a place this grand before! Everything is catching my eye, so to speak."

"I’m sure you know how dangerous fire can be, my king."

"Somehow I believe that this is your fate."

[skai2blue4u]

A few updates!

I decided to organize myself so I could keep track of how much exactly I have left to do for this project so now I finally have numbers to show as I have made a google sheet to calculate my progress.



Apart from that, here's some art progress.

Ella Sprite Variant

Forest Background

Nightmare Fire

And here are a few script previews.

From Day 3

From Day 4: Ember Path

I will continue to work on Ignis through the month! I'm hoping to finish it before August ends.

[Zelan]

I think the idea of a fairy tale focused not only on "after" but also on someone other than the original protagonist is super interesting. (: I also like your art style a lot, keep up the good work!

[skai2blue4u]

I think the idea of a fairy tale focused not only on "after" but also on someone other than the original protagonist is super interesting. (: I also like your art style a lot, keep up the good work!

Thank you so much! I'm glad you like my art style too <3 I decided to go with this simple aesthetic to really push a storybook sort of feel to it so I'm so glad you appreciate it! I only hope you enjoy the full story when it comes out.

[skai2blue4u]

I posted this on my itch.io devlog too but, yeah, I'm very sorry to say I can't release this August because I got sick, unfortunately, and it really shot my writing concentration. That being said, I'll be moving my deadline to before November just to be safe.

Anyway, I've recovered now so I'm going to continue working on the game.

[Autumnotopia]

I love it when a VN has a story that is immediately compelling! You always see a bunch of 'fairytales... except edgy' stories, but I really like the direction this seems to be going. The art definitely adds to it too, I'm looking forward to the release! (Also I hope you're feeling better)

[skai2blue4u]

I love it when a VN has a story that is immediately compelling! You always see a bunch of 'fairytales... except edgy' stories, but I really like the direction this seems to be going. The art definitely adds to it too, I'm looking forward to the release! (Also I hope you're feeling better)

Thank you for taking interest in it! I do like "edgier" stories but I don't actually think that's what I'm going for in this one. Personally I think it was more of just that I wanted to release something for a game jam so I found a concept I could easily bend. It DID last just about a week so I was definitely in a time crunch.

Also thank you for commenting on the art! I will admit that I chose to do it this way to make it faster, but this artistic choice was definitely very deliberate to try and maybe achieve that fairytale aesthetic as much as I can. I'm so glad you noticed. ^v^

And yes I'm feeling better thank you for asking c:

[nerupuff]

I think your art style is very charming and so fitting for the story you're trying to tell! The solid colors and strong lines make me feel as though I'm in a storybook. I love what you've done so far and it is suffice to say that I am very interested in the full game!

I love this fun twist you've added to the Cinderella tale and it's certainly an interesting perspective to take the Prince's (now King's) point of view. I honestly feel so bad for him... but I'm reserving the rest of my feelings when the full game is released. I feel there is a lot these characters are still hiding, and it is exciting!

Best of luck! ^^

[skai2blue4u]

I think your art style is very charming and so fitting for the story you're trying to tell! The solid colors and strong lines make me feel as though I'm in a storybook. I love what you've done so far and it is suffice to say that I am very interested in the full game!

I love this fun twist you've added to the Cinderella tale and it's certainly an interesting perspective to take the Prince's (now King's) point of view. I honestly feel so bad for him... but I'm reserving the rest of my feelings when the full game is released. I feel there is a lot these characters are still hiding, and it is exciting!

Best of luck! ^^

Thank you for giving Ignis the time of day! The art style is very fun to draw and get into because it's simple and fast. This is also the first time I'm ever releasing an original written work of mine for the world to see so I hope I manage to meet expectations! Thank you again! c:

[skai2blue4u]

I disappeared but here I am again!

To be honest I feel horrible about missing my deadlines but life happens and we move forward. What's important is we come back to our projects and finish them so yes, here I am again. I've recently updated the demo(again) for the last time. This will be the demo most connecting to the final product.

I added a few CGs and replaced some others a well as having made changes in the script. I realized I was having trouble writing because the more content I wrote, the further the characters are from what I originally wrote down. I decided to correct that and since I haven't posted in so long, I decided the demo should be updated too. Please bear with me, I'm a solo dev but I'm trying my best. c:

Here are a few samples:

Lilly Flashback CG, Originally Meant for Day 3

Javotte CG comparison side by side

[Zelan]

Glad to see you're still working on this! ^_^ Don't worry about your deadline - like you said, what's important is that you came back to it. I'm willing to wait for the final product. (:

[skai2blue4u]

Glad to see you're still working on this! ^_^ Don't worry about your deadline - like you said, what's important is that you came back to it. I'm willing to wait for the final product. (:

Thank you so much for sticking by despite my slow process! This endeavor has been a huge learning experience for me and I have been having fun working on this visual novel. I'm excited to finish it and hopefully my schedule allows me to one day share the product as soon as possible. c: