Hi everyone!
I'm Aerys and I want to tell you a bit about this project of mine, which has been buzzing around my head for a while now. I've been working on it (concept, story, character design, world building) steadily on the side of my day-to-day life, and I've started working on Ren'py to try and turn this project into an actual game.
It felt natural to share my thoughts with you all since we share the same passion for adult-themed, interactive storytelling. I am a fan of games like Good Girl Gone Bad, Summer's Gone, Seeds of Chaos, Long Story Short, Being a DIK, New Coral City, City of Broken Dreamers...
I like games where choices do matter and it's not about filling a kink list, but building a narrative with the input from the players. I like consequences to the choices I make, good or bad.
I am looking forward to any kind of feedback on the ideas, concept, characters and artwork. To see how I can make it better and if there's interest in this project: I will still keep developing it, but any interest in the project will surely be fuel for my motivation to work on it.
CONCEPT:
Carpe Diem is an upcoming Adventure Game with multiple protagonists, which will include elements of VN, point-and-click exploration and light puzzles. The main concept of the game is to guide the protagonists through dangers and opportunities, using their specifical abilities to help the group (or not) and shape a unique story through the decisions taken. The game will start as a campy adventure with slice-of-life tone and elements, but as the story progresses thriller, horror and darker elements will appear. The game is inspired in its core concept by games like "Unitl Dawn", although with a greater focus on decision-making rather than QTE. Of course it will include Adult stuff, but that's for another section.
The game will be divided in days, with each day divided in segments played through the eyes of one of the 6 protagonists. There will be a strong focus on narrative elements, character and relations development and in the later stages sanity/survival mechanics.
STORY:
The game will follow 6 protagonists through the span of roughly 2 weeks, in an adventorous camping trip through the wilderness of a real-world-based US national forest. Through the adventure, tensions may raise amongst the group (or not, depending on choices), as well as with other groups. Through the days mysterious and creepy events will happen, which will force the group to make crucial decisions, while exploring and investigating to try and solve the mystery surrounding them. Things will escalate until it becomes apparent that the lives of the protagonists are on the line, and depending on the player's choices they may not survive. Indeed, even if they survive, it may not be unscathed from psychological/physical scars. Despite its dark themes the game will not be graphic about excessive violence (no gore, vore...).
CHARACTERS:
These are the playing characters: I tried to keep the descriptions as lean as possible, but their personality, relationships and development through the story is core to the game. I want them to feel like living, breathing characters, not just avatars to a kink or a stereotype. There will be other characters down the road.
Mark, age 22, is a talented yet somewhat troubled musician. He's the frontman for the band Carpe Diem, where he plays with his sister, Dylan and his bestfriend, Luke. They're starting to kick things off and enjoying the first taste of success. It's still not enough to make it a profession, so both Mark and Dylan work in the local pub.
He's deeply in love with his girlfriend, Julia, but with success comes temptation...
He's smart, charming and intuitive but can come off as lazy and impractical at times.
Julia, age 21, is Mark's girlfriend and a brilliant student in medicine. She's smart, compassionate and caring, although a bit naif Not properly a party animal, she's amicable enough but a bit uptight at times. An outdoors explorer by nature, she used to be a scout, so is the go-to resource for anything about camping and survivalism, making her quite resourceful.
Dylan, age 24, is Mark's sister and the drummer for the Carpe Diem. She's the motor of the band, her infinite energy and enthusiasm pushing everyone to their best. Dylan is tough as nails, driven, fiery and bull-headed. Besides her passion for music, she cultivates an interest in martial arts. Her fire burns so strong that you really gotta watch out for explosions around her: rub her the wrong way and you'll get quite a pickle in your hands.
Luke, age 21, is the bassist for band Carpe Diem, as well as Mark's bestfriend. He has a quiet, jovial temper and gets along with pretty much everyone; always ready to help the ones around him, he could be described as a heart of gold. Despite his amicable character, Luke was never the most popular, indeed he used to go quite unnoticed, something that never really sit right with him. Perhaps that's why he painted his hair blue: a cry for attention? With the quick rise of his band, his popularity is also growing, and Luke is finally enjoying a fair amount of success even with girls. But, alas, like a blue-haired Icarus Luke always aims at the most untouchable target. Amber is his sun: will his wings melt trying to get her or will he succeed where many have failed?
Amber, age 21, could be the definition of Homecoming Queen: always the most popular, always the most sought after and talked about. But, unlike most people in her position, Amber was never haughty: she's friendly and easy-going, always a smile and a nice word for everyone. Despite being from a wealthy family, she's more interested in hanging out with regular kids than engaging in the higher society social events, much to her father's disapproval. She's also a very successful student, in her first year in College studying Psychology.
Since the Carpe Diem started enjoying some success, she's been following them at every concert, becoming their fan.
Still, nobody really knows Amber, besides maybe her step-brother Brad. Are all her smiles and kindness just a facade for something colder?
Brad, age 24, is the stereotypical douchebag frat-boy: a reknown womanizer (or a Casanova as he would describe himself), and a cornerstone to the College Football Team, nobody is town is more hated nor idolized than Brad Hart. Some tell the legends of his deeds, while others warn people (mostly girls) to stay away from him. And yet, as a magnet, adventures seem to fall in his lap (or vice-versa) and every week there's a new story to tell about Brad.
But the truth is rarely as it appears, and while may think of him as an invincible hero or a conscienceless bastard, he's neither of the two. Or maybe both. Maybe just a human being like all of us, struggling to find his place in the world, bouncing directionless from one adventure to the other...
GAMEPLAY:
As stated, the game will be mostly a VN with exploration/adventure elements of point-and-click games. No hard puzzles (unless for side content) as I don't want players to be left click/action guessing: every puzzle will be logical and simple to understand, more relying on the exploration and understanding of the world than on out-of-the-box thinking. For example, if you find and read a diary page, you will know for sure what to do next, otherwise you will have to find other clues. Some minigames may be added, like a light fighting system, climbing, card games and such, but it's not a priority.
There will be social games like spin the bottle-ish and turth or dare, this will be pretty central to the first part of the game.
Roleplaying will be central to the game experience: understand that the characters are human beings, not avatars, thus have beliefs, objective, opinions and such. You can direct a character towards actions contrary to his personality/values, but this will have a toll on him/her. This will be tracked with the "Sanity" meter: certain actions done or received by the characters will lower/recover their Sanity, if it drops too low... bad news.
Similarly, some actions may be hard to perform/resist for a character. Some others may fortify their resolve. This will be tracked by the "Willpower" meter. Let's say you're playing as Julia and she is tipsy; a character makes a move on her. Rejecting him/her may be hard depending on her attraction to the character, her relationship with Mark and her level of arousal/drunkness. If she depleted all her willpower, or the temptation is too strong, she might be unable to resist, so willpower/drunkness/arousal management will be a thing. And so on...
KINKS:
This won't be a vanilla game. But it may as well be, depending on how you play it. I plan to add many kinks and to make them all fully avoidable depending on player choices. All protagnists can hook up with one another, so I guess that would be conisdered NTR, so that's a warning to those who have an issue with that.
There will be BDSM of all shapes and form and dubcon, as of now there will be no noncon outside of Bad Endings, because for me it's impossible to write the consequences of such a thing on a character. There will be brother/sister incest, as well as group sex, swinging, voyeurism and some M/M routes (which can be disabled in the options). Most fetishes I will try to include, so if you have any idea/suggestion/question/request, just ask. Bestiality and gore/vore are a no-no for me.
ARTWORK:
Here's the deal: I can't draw. All character were made by pouring hours in the costumization of free assets. I also have many different outfits already done for them. Please, let me know if you like them: a lot of time went into that! By now I'm pretty confident I can create as many side character as I wish just with the collection of free assets I amassed. I found a style that I like for Backgrounds, let me know what you think about it.
Now, the bigger issue is with CG: to which i have not found a solution yet. I have tried two different approaches, and I'm asking for your feedback here.
Solution 1 is using Art from e-hentai and modify it to resemble my characters. This is time-consuming and unethical, because those a pirated assets, not free. That's why I don't like this option, but I like the results. Here's an example with before and after.
AFTER:
Option number 2 is a stylized version, I quite like it, but I don't know if it's enough to convey the content. This is also way easier to produce and would allow for greater variety. Here's an example:
What do you think?
Option 3 would be get an artist involved, I'm open to that but 2d art is slow to produce and I wouldn't be able to provide any compensation. At this point the choice is really between option 1 and 2.
I'm really looking forward to hearing from you, whether it be good or bad.
I'm working in Ren'py and right now the first 2 POVs of day 1 are ready, working on POV 3 right now. As soon as Day 1 is ready (it will still take a while) I plan to release a demo.
Thanks for the attention,
Love, Aerys.
EDITED for formatting, added introduction.
I'm Aerys and I want to tell you a bit about this project of mine, which has been buzzing around my head for a while now. I've been working on it (concept, story, character design, world building) steadily on the side of my day-to-day life, and I've started working on Ren'py to try and turn this project into an actual game.
It felt natural to share my thoughts with you all since we share the same passion for adult-themed, interactive storytelling. I am a fan of games like Good Girl Gone Bad, Summer's Gone, Seeds of Chaos, Long Story Short, Being a DIK, New Coral City, City of Broken Dreamers...
I like games where choices do matter and it's not about filling a kink list, but building a narrative with the input from the players. I like consequences to the choices I make, good or bad.
I am looking forward to any kind of feedback on the ideas, concept, characters and artwork. To see how I can make it better and if there's interest in this project: I will still keep developing it, but any interest in the project will surely be fuel for my motivation to work on it.
CONCEPT:
Carpe Diem is an upcoming Adventure Game with multiple protagonists, which will include elements of VN, point-and-click exploration and light puzzles. The main concept of the game is to guide the protagonists through dangers and opportunities, using their specifical abilities to help the group (or not) and shape a unique story through the decisions taken. The game will start as a campy adventure with slice-of-life tone and elements, but as the story progresses thriller, horror and darker elements will appear. The game is inspired in its core concept by games like "Unitl Dawn", although with a greater focus on decision-making rather than QTE. Of course it will include Adult stuff, but that's for another section.
The game will be divided in days, with each day divided in segments played through the eyes of one of the 6 protagonists. There will be a strong focus on narrative elements, character and relations development and in the later stages sanity/survival mechanics.
STORY:
The game will follow 6 protagonists through the span of roughly 2 weeks, in an adventorous camping trip through the wilderness of a real-world-based US national forest. Through the adventure, tensions may raise amongst the group (or not, depending on choices), as well as with other groups. Through the days mysterious and creepy events will happen, which will force the group to make crucial decisions, while exploring and investigating to try and solve the mystery surrounding them. Things will escalate until it becomes apparent that the lives of the protagonists are on the line, and depending on the player's choices they may not survive. Indeed, even if they survive, it may not be unscathed from psychological/physical scars. Despite its dark themes the game will not be graphic about excessive violence (no gore, vore...).
CHARACTERS:
These are the playing characters: I tried to keep the descriptions as lean as possible, but their personality, relationships and development through the story is core to the game. I want them to feel like living, breathing characters, not just avatars to a kink or a stereotype. There will be other characters down the road.
Mark, age 22, is a talented yet somewhat troubled musician. He's the frontman for the band Carpe Diem, where he plays with his sister, Dylan and his bestfriend, Luke. They're starting to kick things off and enjoying the first taste of success. It's still not enough to make it a profession, so both Mark and Dylan work in the local pub.
He's deeply in love with his girlfriend, Julia, but with success comes temptation...
He's smart, charming and intuitive but can come off as lazy and impractical at times.
Julia, age 21, is Mark's girlfriend and a brilliant student in medicine. She's smart, compassionate and caring, although a bit naif Not properly a party animal, she's amicable enough but a bit uptight at times. An outdoors explorer by nature, she used to be a scout, so is the go-to resource for anything about camping and survivalism, making her quite resourceful.
Dylan, age 24, is Mark's sister and the drummer for the Carpe Diem. She's the motor of the band, her infinite energy and enthusiasm pushing everyone to their best. Dylan is tough as nails, driven, fiery and bull-headed. Besides her passion for music, she cultivates an interest in martial arts. Her fire burns so strong that you really gotta watch out for explosions around her: rub her the wrong way and you'll get quite a pickle in your hands.
Luke, age 21, is the bassist for band Carpe Diem, as well as Mark's bestfriend. He has a quiet, jovial temper and gets along with pretty much everyone; always ready to help the ones around him, he could be described as a heart of gold. Despite his amicable character, Luke was never the most popular, indeed he used to go quite unnoticed, something that never really sit right with him. Perhaps that's why he painted his hair blue: a cry for attention? With the quick rise of his band, his popularity is also growing, and Luke is finally enjoying a fair amount of success even with girls. But, alas, like a blue-haired Icarus Luke always aims at the most untouchable target. Amber is his sun: will his wings melt trying to get her or will he succeed where many have failed?
Amber, age 21, could be the definition of Homecoming Queen: always the most popular, always the most sought after and talked about. But, unlike most people in her position, Amber was never haughty: she's friendly and easy-going, always a smile and a nice word for everyone. Despite being from a wealthy family, she's more interested in hanging out with regular kids than engaging in the higher society social events, much to her father's disapproval. She's also a very successful student, in her first year in College studying Psychology.
Since the Carpe Diem started enjoying some success, she's been following them at every concert, becoming their fan.
Still, nobody really knows Amber, besides maybe her step-brother Brad. Are all her smiles and kindness just a facade for something colder?
Brad, age 24, is the stereotypical douchebag frat-boy: a reknown womanizer (or a Casanova as he would describe himself), and a cornerstone to the College Football Team, nobody is town is more hated nor idolized than Brad Hart. Some tell the legends of his deeds, while others warn people (mostly girls) to stay away from him. And yet, as a magnet, adventures seem to fall in his lap (or vice-versa) and every week there's a new story to tell about Brad.
But the truth is rarely as it appears, and while may think of him as an invincible hero or a conscienceless bastard, he's neither of the two. Or maybe both. Maybe just a human being like all of us, struggling to find his place in the world, bouncing directionless from one adventure to the other...
GAMEPLAY:
As stated, the game will be mostly a VN with exploration/adventure elements of point-and-click games. No hard puzzles (unless for side content) as I don't want players to be left click/action guessing: every puzzle will be logical and simple to understand, more relying on the exploration and understanding of the world than on out-of-the-box thinking. For example, if you find and read a diary page, you will know for sure what to do next, otherwise you will have to find other clues. Some minigames may be added, like a light fighting system, climbing, card games and such, but it's not a priority.
There will be social games like spin the bottle-ish and turth or dare, this will be pretty central to the first part of the game.
Roleplaying will be central to the game experience: understand that the characters are human beings, not avatars, thus have beliefs, objective, opinions and such. You can direct a character towards actions contrary to his personality/values, but this will have a toll on him/her. This will be tracked with the "Sanity" meter: certain actions done or received by the characters will lower/recover their Sanity, if it drops too low... bad news.
Similarly, some actions may be hard to perform/resist for a character. Some others may fortify their resolve. This will be tracked by the "Willpower" meter. Let's say you're playing as Julia and she is tipsy; a character makes a move on her. Rejecting him/her may be hard depending on her attraction to the character, her relationship with Mark and her level of arousal/drunkness. If she depleted all her willpower, or the temptation is too strong, she might be unable to resist, so willpower/drunkness/arousal management will be a thing. And so on...
KINKS:
This won't be a vanilla game. But it may as well be, depending on how you play it. I plan to add many kinks and to make them all fully avoidable depending on player choices. All protagnists can hook up with one another, so I guess that would be conisdered NTR, so that's a warning to those who have an issue with that.
There will be BDSM of all shapes and form and dubcon, as of now there will be no noncon outside of Bad Endings, because for me it's impossible to write the consequences of such a thing on a character. There will be brother/sister incest, as well as group sex, swinging, voyeurism and some M/M routes (which can be disabled in the options). Most fetishes I will try to include, so if you have any idea/suggestion/question/request, just ask. Bestiality and gore/vore are a no-no for me.
ARTWORK:
Here's the deal: I can't draw. All character were made by pouring hours in the costumization of free assets. I also have many different outfits already done for them. Please, let me know if you like them: a lot of time went into that! By now I'm pretty confident I can create as many side character as I wish just with the collection of free assets I amassed. I found a style that I like for Backgrounds, let me know what you think about it.
Now, the bigger issue is with CG: to which i have not found a solution yet. I have tried two different approaches, and I'm asking for your feedback here.
Solution 1 is using Art from e-hentai and modify it to resemble my characters. This is time-consuming and unethical, because those a pirated assets, not free. That's why I don't like this option, but I like the results. Here's an example with before and after.
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Option number 2 is a stylized version, I quite like it, but I don't know if it's enough to convey the content. This is also way easier to produce and would allow for greater variety. Here's an example:
What do you think?
Option 3 would be get an artist involved, I'm open to that but 2d art is slow to produce and I wouldn't be able to provide any compensation. At this point the choice is really between option 1 and 2.
I'm really looking forward to hearing from you, whether it be good or bad.
I'm working in Ren'py and right now the first 2 POVs of day 1 are ready, working on POV 3 right now. As soon as Day 1 is ready (it will still take a while) I plan to release a demo.
Thanks for the attention,
Love, Aerys.
EDITED for formatting, added introduction.
Last edited:
