If anyone wants to talk about my upcoming visual novel, you can do it here.
Quick recap of what I've already announced.
Title: Aurora's Nightmare
Genre: Visual Novel, Fantasy / Suspense
Platform: Windows
Release Date: TBA 2014
Early Concept Art (by Judy Chiang): Ars, Tia
Prologue Sneak Peak:
So this is how it ends...
Even now, as the world crumbles and dissolves around me, thoughts of you fill my mind.
I loved you ever since we were children... But it was more than that. You were everything to me.
My love, my friend, my light... My very reason for life itself.
As we grew and the years passed, through every up and down, there was never any doubt in my mind that we would be together forever.
Yet, here I am...alone...
There are so many emotions within me. Shock, sadness, anger, loneliness, despair...
But, most of all, I'm numb.
It's all too much. I don't know what I should feel. Without you, I'm not even sure who I am...
I keep wondering if there was something I could have done, a different choice I could have made... I'd give anything to try again, to have a single chance to save you.
Just one miracle... Is that too much to ask?
But they're called miracles because they don't happen. I know that better than anyone else...
There's no future. For you, or me, or anyone in this world.
I'm the only one left, and in a few more moments I too will fade into the darkness...
It makes me wonder...
The years we spent together... Those precious irreplaceable times...
Were you ever really mine? Or was it all nothing but a dream?
Aurora's Nightmare
Re: Aurora's Nightmare
Engine? Estimated play time (that is, to get all endings)?
I'll comment more when more is released.
I'll comment more when more is released.
Re: Aurora's Nightmare
I'm using the Novelty engine. It's in open beta right now and the creator plans to offer both a free and commercial liscense once it's done. I'm thinking that, if it's not finished by the time Aurora's Nightmare is, I'll get in touch with him and work out some sort of pre-order arrrangement for the commercial liscense. I chose it because it seems a lot more full featured and user friendly than any of the Japanese VN engines. Though if you know of a good one, feel free to post a link and I'll check it out. I haven't actually done anything in engine yet. I'm planning to alternate between writing (in Word) and compiling the text, images, and audio in the engine. At the moment, I'm writing and want to get a bit more done before I switch to engine work.
Not entirely sure about estimated play time at this point. There will be three main story paths with two main (good, normal, and/or true) endings each and plenty of "you are dead" type endings scattered throughout, though at this point I don't have a set number for those. I'm shooting for around 200 - 300 pages of text (in Word; 12 point, Times New Roman, double spaced) per path, though until I've finished writing the first path (my target date for that is late June) I can't be completely sure about that range. Fate/Stay Night is my main inspiration in terms of structure (as oppsed to say, Kanon or Kira Kira, which don't have nearly as many decisions, branches, or endings) but I don't think Aurora's Nightmare is going to be anywhere near that long. If the paths all fall in the middle of my page range...let's say around 20 - 30 hours to see everything. But, once again, I can't really say for sure this early on.
Not entirely sure about estimated play time at this point. There will be three main story paths with two main (good, normal, and/or true) endings each and plenty of "you are dead" type endings scattered throughout, though at this point I don't have a set number for those. I'm shooting for around 200 - 300 pages of text (in Word; 12 point, Times New Roman, double spaced) per path, though until I've finished writing the first path (my target date for that is late June) I can't be completely sure about that range. Fate/Stay Night is my main inspiration in terms of structure (as oppsed to say, Kanon or Kira Kira, which don't have nearly as many decisions, branches, or endings) but I don't think Aurora's Nightmare is going to be anywhere near that long. If the paths all fall in the middle of my page range...let's say around 20 - 30 hours to see everything. But, once again, I can't really say for sure this early on.
Re: Aurora's Nightmare
I've finished writing the opening section (the part leading up to where the different story paths branch off)! Took a bit longer than I would have liked, but now that I'm getting into the swing of things my writing is speeding up.
At some point, I'd like to take the opening (and maybe part of the first story path) and release it as a demo. Though I can't do that until the neccessary art is finished and I find some good music and sound effects...
At some point, I'd like to take the opening (and maybe part of the first story path) and release it as a demo. Though I can't do that until the neccessary art is finished and I find some good music and sound effects...
Re: Aurora's Nightmare
I've posted some art on PV from time to time but most of it never actually made it into this thread. So...
A few sketches of the three main characters, Ars, Tia, and Aurora, drawn by Hanbee Lee.
And the new full color, though not final, version of Aurora's "normal" pose.
A few sketches of the three main characters, Ars, Tia, and Aurora, drawn by Hanbee Lee.
And the new full color, though not final, version of Aurora's "normal" pose.
Re: Aurora's Nightmare
It's Aurora again, now with much better shading thanks to Silver!
Re: Aurora's Nightmare
Some more images that were posted on PV but haven't made it here yet...
Aurora's injured pose (minus the the wings, which I need to add in).
Aurora as a kid (which I apprently uploaded at full size for some reason).
And Tia's normal pose.
Aurora's injured pose (minus the the wings, which I need to add in).
Aurora as a kid (which I apprently uploaded at full size for some reason).
And Tia's normal pose.
Re: Aurora's Nightmare
I really want to play this, but will it see a Europe release? I don't know much about windows games as I'm a console gamer so don't know what the international rules are for this kind of thing.
"BOW BEFORE THE SHAUNINESS THAT IS SHAUNI! "--Shadowman
"Shauni fell down a drainage ditch and died. That was the end of her pokemon journey. "--Shauni
Go to ROM the Comic
"Shauni fell down a drainage ditch and died. That was the end of her pokemon journey. "--Shauni
Go to ROM the Comic
Re: Aurora's Nightmare
While there might be region restrictions in some of the online stores I'm hoping to get it into, anyone with a credit card and/or Paypal account should be able to buy it from my own web store, regardless of location.
And, as long as I'm posting here... Progress report!
Planning and Design: 100% (Everything has been planned out.)
Writing: ~15% (I've got 87 pages written, encompassing the prologue, shared opening, and the first few days of the first main story path. At present, writing is on hold while I focus on the character art.)
Character Art:
--Design and Concepts: 100% (I have drawings of all the poses for each of the characters.)
--Cleanup and Coloring: 30% (Two characters are completely done and I should have the third finished by the end of the week. There are 11 character, but the three I've done account for 11 out of 34 pages of drawings.)
--Shading: 15% (A bit over a third of the colored character art has been shaded, with many of the others in varying states of progress.)
Background Art: 20% (I have a list of what's needed and suitable collection of photos but haven't started editing them yet. Ideally, hand drawn backgrounds would be nice but unless the situation changes I'm currently planning to use heavily edited photos to save money.)
CG Art: ??? (I'd like to have CGs but, at present, I don't have the budget for it. This may change later on.)
Music and Sound: 10% (I've made a list of the music tracks and sound effects I'll need, but haven't started seriously searching for them yet. Ideally, I'd like to hire a composer and create an original soundtrack. But, to save on costs, I'll likely have to use a mix of tracks that are either free or cheap to liscense.)
Compilation: 1% (As in, taking all the above elements and combining them to make the actual game. At this point, I've narrowed down my options to two different game engines but it'll be a while before I actually start using one of them. This is really the last step. That said, once I have enough characters colored and shaded to cover the first part of the story, I'm planning on temporarily switching gears to some of the other elements and then putting a demo together.)
And, as long as I'm posting here... Progress report!
Planning and Design: 100% (Everything has been planned out.)
Writing: ~15% (I've got 87 pages written, encompassing the prologue, shared opening, and the first few days of the first main story path. At present, writing is on hold while I focus on the character art.)
Character Art:
--Design and Concepts: 100% (I have drawings of all the poses for each of the characters.)
--Cleanup and Coloring: 30% (Two characters are completely done and I should have the third finished by the end of the week. There are 11 character, but the three I've done account for 11 out of 34 pages of drawings.)
--Shading: 15% (A bit over a third of the colored character art has been shaded, with many of the others in varying states of progress.)
Background Art: 20% (I have a list of what's needed and suitable collection of photos but haven't started editing them yet. Ideally, hand drawn backgrounds would be nice but unless the situation changes I'm currently planning to use heavily edited photos to save money.)
CG Art: ??? (I'd like to have CGs but, at present, I don't have the budget for it. This may change later on.)
Music and Sound: 10% (I've made a list of the music tracks and sound effects I'll need, but haven't started seriously searching for them yet. Ideally, I'd like to hire a composer and create an original soundtrack. But, to save on costs, I'll likely have to use a mix of tracks that are either free or cheap to liscense.)
Compilation: 1% (As in, taking all the above elements and combining them to make the actual game. At this point, I've narrowed down my options to two different game engines but it'll be a while before I actually start using one of them. This is really the last step. That said, once I have enough characters colored and shaded to cover the first part of the story, I'm planning on temporarily switching gears to some of the other elements and then putting a demo together.)
Re: Aurora's Nightmare
Here's the final version of one of young Tia's poses.
And, while it's not directly related to the game, here's a cool drawing Hanbee sent me for my brithday.
And, while it's not directly related to the game, here's a cool drawing Hanbee sent me for my brithday.
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Linux and Mac support
Okay, I just checked, and the Novelty engine (or at least the designer) is compatible with Linux using Wine. This means Aurora's Nightmare should work on Linux, and Wine can be hacked a little to work on a Mac too! I just thought those couple people around here without a Windows PC might want to know.
Re: Aurora's Nightmare
I'm considering starting a development blog for Aurora's Nightmare. It would be updated around once a week and include things like project status, character bios, teaser art, explanations of different parts of the development process, and the like. Nothing is final yet, and I'd need to decide what type of system I'd want to use (standard html like PV, Wordpress, Blogger, etc.), but seems like a potentially good way to start drumming up a bit of interest in the game.
Re: Aurora's Nightmare
Posted this on PV a while back but not here. It's the cat (who purposely lacks a proper name).
