2012-12-08

Mysteriously alone

After creating Metropolitan Blues together with a bunch of really cool people, I wanted more. Much, much more. More VNs, more interactivity, more atmosphere. The problem was, production for my next project proved to be more difficult than I thought. What I really wanted to do was a game about this woman:
...well, actually, she would have been a kitsune, a Japanese fox spirit, and the story was a romance set in medieval Japan, and I had character art produced, I had music produced, I was a little behind on the BGs, but it looked as though the game could still be made - well, but then we all ran into a brick wall, and I still couldn't program (which probably would have saved the project), so - yes, that was the end of that.

So I was without an active project, and NaNoRenO, Lemmasoft's annual "make-a-ren'ai-game-within-a-month-contest" was coming up, and I really didn't feel like assembling another team and disappointing everybody again. So there was only one choice: I had to make a game alone, using public domain and Creative Commons resources and teaching myself how to program in Ren'Py.

And that is how The Loyal Kinsman happened.

This VN was strongly inspired by The Wandering Child, a mystery VN set in Victorian times. My story was also of the mystery genre, only set in the European Middle Ages, at Castle Berwartstein, which is located less than 100 kilometers from where I live. The plot revolves around investigating the death of a knight, and you (the investigator) play the role of that knight's future squire who, without a knight, probably never will be a squire.
For art resources, I used public domain photos and pictures I had made myself during a visit to Berwartstein. Also, I used portrait paintings which were also in the pubic domain - just like The Wandering Child had done. Of course, mine weren't Victorian, mine were a little earlier:
All in all, The Loyal Kinsman is a little less mysterious than Metropolitan Blues, even though it's a classic murder mystery, but I believe it's much more accessible. MetBlues probably has the better writing (stylistically speaking), but I'm quite proud of the plot of this one too. It's just hard enough that you probably won't figure out the mystery the first time, though not that hard. It's a little more linear than MetBlues too, but hey, I did this all alone, within less than 30 days!

Download it for free here, if you want to!



No comments:

Post a Comment

I very much look forward to your feedback. Please keep your comments civil - this is pretty much an all-ages blog.