"Pirate Mermaid" Demo ready for beta!

(EDIT: We're currently looking for someone with Linux to beta-test the demo. Let us know if you're interested!)

As in, I literally finished building the demo distributions an hour ago! After coding like crazy and abusing my computer with tons of Photoshop tabs for the last few days, I feel like crying tears of joy right now. *_* I'm just going to cross my fingers and hope that the beta testers don't run into any major issues.

Here are some more screenshots in the meantime (I still can't get over how lovely Nellie's backgrounds are!):


Now to go collapse in my bed for the next few days (haha, oh how I wish...ugh, I've still got to finish compiling all the credits...dangit...).

Pirate Mermaid Pre-Demo Update

Hey all! So Nellie and I were originally hoping to release the demo for our otome/fantasy collab game "The Pirate Mermaid" at the end of October. Obviously that didn't happen, but we're getting pretty close! Writing, coding, and sound are all largely done, so we just have to finish up the GUI and a couple art assets before we're good to go. So hopefully we'll be ready in another week or two. (crosses fingers)

The demo will be slightly over 10K words and includes the intro and first scenes for each of the two main guys (a sorcerer and a mermaid prince). Hopefully that will be enough to give everyone a feeling for the full game and generate some good feedback! This will actually be my first ever game release, so I'm quite excited (and nervous)!

Some preview screenshots (because I, for one, cannot read a page of text with no pictures):

Making a magical contract with the sorcerer.	Pirate girl protagonist rocking out on her ship.
Fail the contract, and the sorcerer will turn you into a lobster.	Who could this "mysterious" merman possibly be?

As you'll see in the game, many of the scenes/backgrounds also feature some small animations (seeing as Nellie draws beautiful, beautiful frames and I have an unhealthy obsession with ATL).

Well, if anything, I've picked up a lot of cool new graphics and coding things from this project, so even if everyone hates the animations, at least they generated some fun learning experiences! :D  I'd like to do a post on my Renpy escapades at some point in the future (hopefully it can benefit other game makers as well? ;p)

AXIOM.01 Gameplay Videos

Last post, I said the next update would be AXIOM.01 gameplay videos, and now here they are! Yep, I'm totally on top of things now! xD Ignoring my lateness...and inability to finish clue images...and the last hidden object room... (deflates like a balloon)

The first case centers on the disappearance of a priceless necklace called the Tears of Lyra. The owner of the necklace, the snooty Student Council Vice President, accuses Sylvia of stealing her jewels, and it's up to the MC to sleuth out the truth. Can you figure out whether Sylvia is really innocent and who else is involved? And what's this rumor about a "killing curse" on the necklace?

Vice President Priscilla Mackeroy, who wins the prize for "most hair in this game"
(though Mikali from "The Pirate Mermaid" would probably beat her).

As you'll see, I've made a couple changes/improvements since the original gameplay intro post, most notably regarding the question presentation and HP penalties, but the basic structure is the same.


First off is a preview video of the Investigation Phase, where you travel to different locations and interrogate suspects. I decided to feature a Remy scene because he's blowing away everyone else on the character popularity poll (>50% of votes, seriously?!). Kago says I made him too mean, haha, but I think he has his reasons.

(The chibi art on the maps is placeholder for now...gonna replace them later with Nellie's awesome chibis once I get a chance to color them!)


And here is a preview video of clue collection and the Deduction Phase. Clue collection consists of hidden object games (the first case has three hidden object rooms in total), while the deduction is the final part where you must present the right clues to solve the case.

Graying out the hidden object items after they're found, as well as highlighting them when a "hint" button is pressed, is something that I've been wanting to add for the last few weeks, so I'm glad it's finally implemented. (Even though I had to redo all screens, I think the pain was worth it. Still have one room left to revamp...the most complicated one ;_;). We're getting there, slowly but surely!

Pirate Mermaid Preview Video

Hey, everybody! Check out this preview video from my and Nellie's upcoming otome game, "The Pirate Mermaid"!

The pirate girl protagonist gets stranded on a deserted island, only to find out it is not so "deserted" after all. Introduces one of the game's two love main interests - a snarky, monocle-wearing sorceror - and features lots of cute chibi animations. ^_^



Is the moving compass on the namebox too distracting for anyone, by the way? (It's only supposed to change when the speaker changes, but maybe even that's a bit excessive)  I think I need to restrain myself from spamming any more animations. -_-

Next video: AXIOM.01 gameplay preview? xD (I've finished the hint/fading clues system for one room; two more to go!)

Pretty Pictures

Yay for art updates! I'm especially excited to show pieces from such talented artists - seeing their work really makes me want to practice hard and improve my own abilities! :)

First, I have some new main menu wallpapers by the beauteous bunbun. bunbun was kind enough to do wallpaper art for all of the AXIOM.01 guys, but I'll just show Sagan's for now, because it's my favorite (and because, according to my tags, I haven't posted as many pictures of Sagan as everyone else).

You can unlock each guy's special "bunbun-style" wallpaper by completing their demo scenes. Eventually, I'm hoping to have a variety of wallpapers with different unlock conditions throughout the game. (hunts for more awesome guest artists)

Next, here's a CG preview by Nellie from the "The Pirate Mermaid." This is Mikali, the kindhearted mermaid prince. He's a sweet, idealistic guy who wants to learn more about humans, even though most mermaids avoid them at all costs. I'm especially fond of his long golden hair. :3

In other news, I'm hoping to revamp the hidden object screens for AXIOM.01 this week (tip for anyone doing imagemaps in Renpy: do not put in any objects with overlapping bounding areas, else you will probably regret it!). Removing overlap will allow me to fade out objects once they are found, as well as to add a hint system. While it's going to be a pain to redo the images, I think these new functions should be worth it.

Then I need to sit down and finish those last few clue images! I keep on wanting to take a break to improve my art, but I should at least get the demo out the door first. ^^ Here's hoping for a release sometime next month!

Introducing "The Pirate Mermaid"

 Hey all! So I've been taking an impromptu break from AXIOM.01 ever since my computer died (luckily, I had most of my files backed up, so I didn't lose too much). Finally got a new laptop, so I'll be finishing up those last bits of art and coding soon!

In the meantime, I started working on a short-and-sweet collab project with my friend Nellie (who did chibi art for AXIOM.01 earlier). "The Pirate Mermaid" will be an otome game featuring a gender-flipped version of "The Little Mermaid" fairytale, with a ruthless pirate girl protagonist. You can either win guys over by becoming a nicer person, or by corrupting them to join your evil pirate ways. xD

More info about "The Pirate Mermaid" and regular updates are posted in our official WIP thread. We're planning to have a demo out by October, so wish us luck! :)

Grand GUI Finale

In a previous post, I showed some screenshots/mockups for the AXIOM.01 GUI. I am happy to say that I finally finished coding all the GUI screens! Each screen has some small animations, similar to the animated main menu I showed before.

You can check out a quick demonstration of the AXIOM.01 GUI in this video.


Around 1:40, you can see my new setup for interrogation questions. Now, you can either view questions by scrolling down a textbox-sized menu, or expand the menu to display all the questions at once.


Before implementing this "expanding menu" thing, I had sprites sliding back and forth to avoid being blocked by the questions, which looked really odd. I definitely prefer this new system. :)

By the way, someone asked a couple posts back if I could do a tutorial on main menus. Would anybody else be interested in GUI programming or general Ren'Py tutorials? If so, what specific topics would you like to have covered?