Delightful Teatime Club Project

Intro:
So I think I'll be labeling everything for the sake of skimming. I'm a lazy person and even I can't stand my own ranting. So labels are wonderful and helpful when it comes to blogging or writing long rants that have information I might need later.

Upon seeing my blog, a friend of mine showed me Ren'Py which is a program that can be used to make otome games! So I decided that I should go for it!

Right now, I'm going at it alone, which kind of stinks since I don't have much input on what I'm doing. The help that I'm getting is from the super kind artists in the world that allow their work to be used for free. Of course I'm giving credit to them.

So other than those super nice people, I'm at it on my own.

I've spent the past day busting my brain into smithereens trying to grasp the system that is being used in Ren'Py. So far, I've got the basics down. I don't think anyone should expect a lot from me, and I doubt anyone is. I'm starting up this little project so I can keep track of what I'm doing and what I'm learning so I can look back at this and be like "Oh yeah! On that date I learned how to make this! I should try looking back at it because I usually forget stuff!"

So everything is subject to changes. I might add more to the plot or change things around. It all depends on what happens in the future. I just thought i'd get this out to remind myself not to work myself into a dead end.

Plot:
Okay, so enough with the intros. Let's move on with the little idea that started in my head. I thought I'd start with a very simple plot which is a high school plot. I'm just going to make a visual novel. I don't think I have the skills to add things like the bars of skills and bars of love points yet like in the other games I've seen.

The basic plot of the Delightful Teatime Club is about a girl named Mio who is now a freshman in high school. She's going to be attending Levine High School and it is well known for having a lot of exotic clubs. Due to unforeseen circumstances, Mio gets stuck joining the Delightful Teatime Club which is often confused with being a host club because asides from Mio, the club is full of guys.

As Mio progresses in her high school life, she may fall in love, make rivals, or encounter unforeseen events (ahahahah I'm so vague, aren't I?).

The progress of the plot is still a tiny idea and is subject to change and improvements in the future! Right now, this is all I have.

Characters:
Mio: The heroine of the story. Her personality kind of varies depending on the choices that the player picks for her. Although her main personality is that of a blunt and slightly sarcastic girl who may veer a little towards the tomboy side.

Lydia: Mio's best friend from middle school. She's sportsy, pushy, and tomboyish. Her joy in life is tackling people. She's very loud and very blunt.

Mom: Mio has a mother, of course! She is an exotic woman who yearns for girl talk and girly things, but due to her exotic nature and unusual strength, she sort of scares them away. A doting mother when she wants to be, Mio's mother is a good cook and is apparently nameless except for Mom because I'm such a lazy and horrible person.

As for the guys, I have already their names and the idea of their personalities in my head, but I think I'll experiment with their character development a little more before I put them down. So here's the list of names of Mio's club members: Kale, Gil, Roy, Pierre, Alex, and Matthew.

Character art:
I have none done so far. I plan to work on Mio's art the moment I finish this blog. So this will take a while and the production that I have will be character art-less. Well, good luck to me!

Gameplay:
As of right now, it's a visual novel. Choices and everything can be made through the game and the way I'm setting it up is making the game so long that I know I will cry tears of blood once I get further and further through the game.

As I mentioned in the plot section, I don't know if I'll be able to implement relationship bars and skill bars or any kind of bars in particular. The relationship points will remain unknown to the player as they progress through the game so the ending will hit them with a surprise. I have a feeling that this will cause a lot of negative feedback if I have anyone try to play it since it's hard to tell if she's getting the guy she wants.

So far the ending seems simple. At the end (it will come at some point but that requires a lot of future planing), the boy with the most relationship points will trigger the ending and stuff happens. I think I might even have an alone ending if someone just decided to play around and just make everyone hate her character. There are also friendship endings where the person with the most points happens to be a female character.

Progress:
Hahah, you're joking! What progress? Just kidding. There's like a tiny bit of progress. Thanks to the wonderful people who are so kind, I have the background and music implemented as well as the some of the script done.

Now, I will be working on Mio's character art! I think I'll post up some of my pictures (if I finish) in my next post!