Gem's Art Wall

[Regulus]

Wow. That's pretty great. I hope you have the drive to see this through to completion, because creating even a simple game is a massive project, and I'd be interested in following this to see how it goes.

[Ultra Fox]

It looks really good! Just be sure to make some of the gameplay and style unique as there are a lot of games out there these days (the style looks good so far, just a general suggestion lol).

Also, I can do some good voices, so if you need someone, I'd love to do voice acting.

[Gemini]

Hey, thanks for the nice feedback, guys! BTW, if I don't respond for a while, I'm not ignoring you or anything. I'm just gonna try to limit my posts here to when I actually have updates. Otherwise everything might get really flooded, haha.

@Regulus Thanks, Regs! It certainly is a pretty big project... but I have dealt with large, multi-year projects before (mainly fanfiction), so I think that will help. The fact that we literally picked it up after a year and half leads me to believe that we won't likely forget about it anytime soon, even if progress is slow sometimes. But if you continued to follow us, that would be really great!

@UF Thank you! And it's alright, I totally understand... one of my friends plays a lot of games and we are gonna try to do the same thing as we did with the story - look at things we like, things that work, things we want to incorporate, and some things that don't work and that we should avoid... and then kinda brainstorm and try to come up with some unique twists of our own. I personally think that coming up with good game mechanics is going to be quite difficult, since, as you said, there's a lot of games out there. But we're sure gonna try.

PS Thanks for the offer. c': I'll definitely talk to you once we know where we are going to need voices for sure.

Anyway, as I said, another update. This one is relatively small, as we haven't gone too much farther in the past week or so. That's just what happens when people have work and jobs and college and that sort of thing, though, I suppose. So nothing too discouraging.

Update 2: show

So it's almost February now - we are a week away - and things have been pretty busy for some of us, so not too much has happened.

I did just spend the last little bit of time making a SoundCloud, though... I have no idea what I'm doing on it, really, but you can look at two concept songs here.

The first one is a theme we have had for a while - the other is a more recent addition, but we were thinking that it could be a good track to play while solving puzzles... which, while we are on the subject, we are hoping will comprise a fairly large component of gameplay (rather like Undertale, except those puzzles really weren't that difficult, to be honest...). Successful completion of puzzles - especially those that take a long time to complete or are hard to find - may grant the player special items/stats/skills/equipment/unlockables/etc. We still have to discuss the nature of these items, but we are thinking that the world will be somewhat open, with side quests and such and with the player needing to return to each section of the map multiple times in order to actually complete the game.

We also have been working on a new character, and a rather major one at that. His role and personality has changed a bit through the various drafts of the game but, as it is now, his name is Ukko and his design is based upon both the Sami people (mostly the clothing) as well as on modern Northern European groups (aka he's the first white guy on the cast lol). While he is an antagonist, we do want him to remain somewhat sympathetic through his motivations/backstory. Like Caiya, he is afflicted with the blight - he is connected with him in this way and serves as the leader of a fairly close group who are also cursed. He cares genuinely for them and only seeks to make their lives better.

However, in spite of his good intentions, he does have some skeletons in his closet, so to speak, and will resort to morally questionable means in attaining his goals. He is also capable of being brutal and ruthless. Caiya's interactions with him will influence the ending of the game, as well as what happens to him, Nina, and those around him with the blight.



This is the only concept art we have at the moment. My friend actually had an additional and somewhat awesomer looking piece on her computer, but of course SAI crashed and lost it. Totally gonna punch her for that when I visit Washington again lol



My friend also came up with this. It's super rough right now but might become our official title art for the time being.

(Be sure to open it in a new tab to see the full picture!)

Lastly, I have some written works that are mostly serving as background/canon/etc., so that it is easier to nail down scenes, interactions, and plot points. These have already proven to be quite useful in our understanding of how the universe works and what the characters' relationships are to each other. Therefore, they will likely be polished and released at some point in the near future for the reading enjoyment of anyone interested. So keep following us! We will be releasing more great things very soon.

BTW, we recently made an account on deviantArt focused specifically on this game. We are currently trying to decide how we are going to run the account, and which things we are going to post and when, but there will likely be promotional art, updates and (perhaps) some concept art over there in the future... so check it out and give us a watch if you're interested.

[Braveheart]

Is this a pay to play visual novel sort of game?

[Gemini]

^ Nope! Planning on making it a full-fledged RPG. Not sure what the price will be yet - all depends on how well we feel the game's turned out and how many people are interested. That's a looooong way off, though.

Anyway. Planning on doing Sunday updates here. Missed last Sunday because we were busy, and my one friend in charge of the art was sick for several days. But aside from that, we've made quite a bit of progress on this.

Update 3: show

We've scrapped the Dev ID/title art from the last update, for the most part. My friend is currently working on a piece reflecting the sort of duality in the game and the theme of flowers.

I think it's coming along pretty well. We like the idea of having Nina here, like shown, and then having Caiya on the other side with the flowers wilting. Right now we are trying to decide what sorts of things we want to happen for different endings, depending on which route you pick for each sibling. That way there will be a wide variation of different possible outcomes and events to happen depending on what you do, and who you do it with.

A lot of this elaboration has been on Ukko's role in the story, since he's a fairly major character and a major factor influencing the path that Caiya takes through the game. It's been somewhat difficult for us to determine who he is, exactly, and how influenced he will be by the player's actions, but this is something that we are currently working on pinning down, for sure.

What we do know, as I mentioned last time, is that he's the leader of a ragtag group of people who have the same curse that Caiya does. Caiya meets them at some point in the game and becomes involved with them, to various outcomes. Ukko generally dislikes people who do not have the blight and is not on good terms with most of the nearby villages.

His design is mostly decided now at this point.



We tried to really portray his confident and fearless personality, since these are traits that we have pretty much set in stone. Additionally, despite his role as an anatagonist, we want him to be sympathetic and a bit gray. Caiya's actions will partly influence which side of him is shown more to the player - on the one hand, he is capable of being a strong leader, concerned, and even somewhat jovial and friendly; on the other, he can be a brutal and bloodthirsty authoritarian. He is intended to be a challenge for the player to navigate, morally speaking.

Complicating things further, there are other blight-afflicted characters besides Ukko that Caiya can interact with. We have a few ideas for these so far, but mostly our design efforts have been centered on Fen, a spunky and optimistic (yet frail) young woman who tends to see the best in people. She will generally try to befriend the player; while we are still unsure of what role she plays, her reaction to Caiya will be affected by how he behaves.



Fen is on the left; Ukko's on the right. Despite his generally cold personality, Ukko and Fen are actually quite close - she has known him since she was a child.



(This is my current avatar picture, so some may recognize it xD)



Fen's original sketch/design. Her features and clothing were modeled off of East Asian culture, particularly the Chinese. Compared to Ukko, she is a very light and non-threatening character.

Caiya's relationships with the two of them and with the others afflicted by the blight, as well as his actions towards Nina and others in the outside world, will all influence what ending the player receives for him. On Nina's end, details are still a bit unclear. However, we have started sketching out some ideas for places and settings that we want her to visit, with the possibility of picking up companions at each of these destinations.



Caiya's and Nina's hometown, a village carved into a canyon and centered around a river (this provides some arable land for farming corn and also raising chickens). Things here are generally peaceful and the people avoid conflict, for the most part. The giant skull shown in the picture serves as a temple/gathering place and may end up being an area of interest (and puzzles!) for Nina to explore in the game.



The first place Nina goes to after departing, a wide and mostly empty meadow. Not too much has been decided on this area yet, except that this is the place where the player first meets Kalil (the starting party member) and is introduced to combat - therefore, it can be said that some people here are friendly, and some are less so.



A possible seaside area. This may or may not end up actually being in the game, as we haven't really discussed what it is yet.

We've made quite a bit of progress fleshing out the story and scripting possible dialogue scenes, as well. However, these are resources which I am quite reticent to share, as I don't particularly wish to give too much away already at this point in time. Rest assured, though, that we are making good progress.

As always, if you'd like to stay posted, we are going to attempt to update these regularly (or, at least as regularly as can be allowed by college/work/etc.).

- deviantArt
- SoundCloud
- this thread (!)

Enjoy! And see you all next week. c:

[Gemini]

Well, we've done more work on this, so time for another update! I just got done talking with my friend and I also talked a little bit with my boyfriend (our programmer) on what we could do to start with the actual coding. We are definitely going to begin looking into that, given that we've made massive strides on the plot after a bit of brainstorming.

So things are definitely going well.

Update 4: show

Despite being the main character, at this point in time Nina has been temporarily relegated to something of a backseat. We will likely flesh out her storyline once we have the framework of the plot in place, including the beginning/main conflict and the ending(s). In my experience, this is generally a good way to work on a story, so that is what we are going with. Details will come later.

Therefore, a lot of focus has still been on Caiya and on the antithetical characters he comes across (I wish to call them antagonists, but that doesn't fully do them justice as we tried to make them sympathetic and even good in many ways). The connection that they have to the blight is the main factor influencing their situation, and it generally puts them in a bad spot. When Caiya meets them, they are basically alone and struggling to survive in a cold wasteland - a rather creepy and unsettling place which, while afflicted by the blight, tends to taint those who travel there (many people have committed suicide some time after entering the forest that Caiya's potential friends/allies live in). Ukko, being a strong leader, is one of the few sources of security that they have, and they all consider him a friend. Therefore, they tend to overlook the darker aspects of his personality as well as the questionable things he does.

However, the player ultimately has the choice on who to ally with, and to what extent. This will greatly affect how those with the blight (especially Ukko) treat Caiya and what side of them the player is mostly going to see.

Speaking of which, we have actually fleshed out Ukko significantly since last week (appropriate, given that he is the most important character aside from the two siblings and one of the main factors influencing the player's ending). While I am still not exactly sure how much I want to share, as far as details go, we definitely have established him as a more multifaceted personage.



Ukko's current (and growing) set of talking sprites. We actually still have quite a ways to go with this, as he makes a wide range of different expressions aside from simply aggressive/passive-aggressive. He's honestly probably one of the more dynamic characters in this regard.

Generally speaking, we've developed him as tough, fearless, disciplined, and pretty demanding; however, he is also capable of being extraverted and sociable, something he generally shows when around those he lives with. Regardless of the front he is wearing, though, he's pretty composed and calculated, even when angry, and this can make him a very daunting person to interact with. Most people simply don't know him very well, as he can be very defensive when it comes to anything that would potentially make him vulnerable: for example, we recently decided and expanded upon the idea that Ukko once had a younger sister, a fact that he very rarely, if ever, shares with anyone. While I would rather not give away all the details (again, sorry!), her fate is something that causes him a lot of pain, even if he refuses to acknowledge it.



Ukko (17 years old in this picture), and Louhi (16). As his sibling, Louhi looks a lot like Ukko. However, she does not have the blight, and is generally a more open, optimistic, free-spirit type of a character - in fact, she and Nina share several similarities in terms of their personalities... and, like Nina also, her relationship with her brother undergoes a lot of strain as she grows up for a variety of reasons.



(A quick sketch of Ukko and his sister as slightly younger teenagers.)

At his best, Ukko is a capable ally and a friend to Caiya and the others, and makes choices in their best interests. At his worst, he represents the sort of person - cold, brutal, and emotionally stunted - that Caiya could become in time if he makes certain choices or allows the blight to take control of him.

Aside from Ukko, we are still trying to brainstorm backstory and settings, go through worldbuilding, and develop other characters that Caiya could interact with as a 'party' of sorts to match Nina's. These people will all be NPCs whom you can fight alongside and battle enemies with - and they, in turn, will also have their own traits and personalities.



Ila and Ukiuk, the first set of 'blight' characters we've made (aside from Ukko and Fen). Though they aren't nearly as important as either of the other two, I've had the idea for them for a while now, and we are now beginning to draw them and commit to some designs. Ila is the one on the left - reserved, guarded, and hard to get to know well - while his twin brother, Ukiuk - an enthusiastic and easygoing troublemaker - is on the right. They frequently squabble with each other, much to the amusement of those around them, but they are generally inseparable nonetheless. The two of them have known Ukko since they were 14.



I also made my own, slightly different rendition of Ila, looking somewhat angrier... even though I can't draw people for the life of me... yeah. Welp, still... go me, I guess? Px

Lastly, but not least-ly, we've made some additional drawings of Nina, just so that it doesn't seem as though we have completely forgotten about her. She hopefully will make a more prominent appearance in next week's update... since she is the main character, after all.



A quick sketch of Nina with Kalil. Uhhh... ignore his leg, I guess? (I have no idea what happened there lol)



Staring intensely off into the distance. Just because she can.



A chibi that my friend's younger (!) sister contributed to the game. She will likely end up being a lot of help once we start doing animations and sprite-work. I personally think this piece is very good, especially considering she's only 13! So it'll be nice to have her on the project.

As before, if you would like to stay updated, I would recommend giving us a watch on our dA account, as we've actually been updating it fairly often.

Until next time, have a great week! /3

[Ultra Fox]

Coming along nicley! Awesome stuff!

[Gemini]

^ Thanks!

Welp, I know I said I'd be doing updates on this every Sunday. But that kind of went out the window. xD I blame real life and also not being on this site a whole bunch like I was.

We are still working on this, though! It's going along really well. So I'll make another update here before I put it off again.

Update 5: show

Well, it's hard to really share everything we've done without putting major spoilers everywhere, but as of early April we've made a timeline of when we want things done, and we've done a pretty good job of sticking to it. We actually have the entire cast of characters planned out, with basic designs in place for most of them. They are also coming along quite well in terms of personality.

Overall, we have 21 characters that are going to be in the game (including the main two). This doesn't include extras - simply potential party members and people with whom you can interact. Many of them will affect the story in one way or another, so it will be necessary to talk to them at some point.

Anyway, I'm having a hard time remembering exactly what was here in the previous posts, since it's been a while (two months is basically an eternity in terms of how this project is coming along so yeah). But we have some new pictures up on the dA account, and an overall clearer picture of who a lot of people are.



For one, we finished up that sketch of Ila and Ukiuk; they are quite a bit more developed now. Ukiuk, especially, has changed - he now has a bit of an edge to him and is quite brash, making him prone to butting heads with his brother and others. He tends to resent authority and can be a bit of a punk, for lack of a better word. Ila is much more cautious and reserved, but capable of being very fierce when angry.

They will interact mostly with Caiya, and not Nina - his relationship with them depends on his actions, as usual.

We also drafted up some official references for both old and new characters alike, in order that their designs can be a bit more consistent. These are basically completely finalized at this point.



Going clockwise from the top left: Nina, Caiya, Ukko, Kalil, Rani, Yago, and Fen.

As I said, this is pretty set in stone by now and is unlikely to change in the future. We are currently working on getting some of the other major characters down as well (Ila, Ukiuk, and others). I believe I have introduced all of these characters before at some point (except Yago), but we definitely have a better idea of who all of them are. Rani and Kalil, despite being some of our oldest characters, didn't have too much development behind them until recently. But we finally sat down and worked on their backstories and personalities and now have a more comfortable idea on how they would interact - Kalil is generally pretty upbeat and genuine and cares about people, though this hides the fact that he is pretty lonesome on the inside and is seeking companionship. Rani, on the other hand, is pretty closed, angry, and a bit judgmental at times. A lot of this stems from unresolved trauma she went through as a kid. Nina's actions will help influence whether they become friends and whether she comes to terms with it.



The one character who I don't think I mentioned before (and quite honestly came out of nowhere and was developed pretty quickly) is Yago. His design is somewhat inspired by the vaqueros/cowboys of the southern US and Mexico, and we borrowed a bit of that for his personality as well. He tends to be very observant, quiet, and gruff. He is honorable, having a strong desire to follow his own moral code, but otherwise is independent and mostly unconcerned with leadership and laws.

Interestingly, he has the blight, but is initially affiliated with Nina's party. We decided to have him join Ukko (and thus Caiya) at some point as well, therefore creating a character who essentially has met and been a part of both sides. We thought that this might add some more tension to the plot.

On Nina's side also, we have this guy.



He doesn't have a name or much of a story yet. He's a bit of a worry-wart, though. Hopefully he will be more well-developed by the next update.



Lastly, we have these four headshots of semi-developed characters. The one on the very left is un-named - the other three, from left to right, however, are Rin - a cold and very self-interested thief and vagabond who becomes involved in Nina's party, to potentially bad results, Saoirse - a very introverted and bookish woman who nonetheless has grown bitter of her current life and thirsts for adventure despite her affliction with the blight and her involvement with Ukko, and Aylen - a young teenager (also with the blight) who, despite being quite demure, grapples with the strength of her powers and the resulting violent tendencies that it brings alongside it. Like most of the other blight characters, she finds a home and a sense of security by joining Ukko's band, regardless of the morally questionable consequences that that entails.

In addition to adding new characters and fleshing out existing ones on their own, a lot of thought has been put into how they interact - this goes for Nina's party and for Caiya's. And despite the fact that those with the blight share their curse in common, and generally don't have anyone else besides each other, things can often become quite tense with someone like Ukko in charge.



We definitely imagined him as someone who can be very cold and callous at times, much to the dismay of his friends - Ila and Fen (center and right) are likely the closest people he has, but they still tend to get the butt end of this at times. The idea is that Caiya will have a lot to think about and reckon with once he joins the group.

Lastly, we also have some more music. Yay!

1E.mp3

(1.02 MiB) Downloaded 362 times

2G EDIT.mp3

(669.7 KiB) Downloaded 354 times

4B.mp3

(250.24 KiB) Downloaded 369 times

8.mp3

(375.54 KiB) Downloaded 366 times

9A.mp3

(440.85 KiB) Downloaded 347 times

There are more, but none of these are really finished and I just decided to share my favorites anyway. These were all done by me, actually... unlike the art.

As always, if you want to stay updated and see even more pictures, then please check our group dA! It gets updated a lot more often than this thread does.

Until next time, cheers!

[Carl]

This is all coming along very well. You and your friends are very skilled and talented. I'm very interested to hear and see more about this game!

[kawaiineko-chan]

I love Ukko's long sensual braid. he is like elsa, my ice queen