Release (of a work-in-progress)

Oops.

So it's been two years since my last attempt at a visual novel... And this attempt was a sort of spur-of-the-moment decision, because I saw somebody else post about the jam at the same time I was watching Saekano (a show about some kids making a game), and because I didn't want to leave school without trying at least one more time to make a visual novel. Okay, so my actual aim was a bit higher, like "release a story with a proper beginning, middle, and end", something that appeals to the aesthetics, but for something this unfinished, at least I can say I learned about my process.

To be honest, this first (and only) scene I submitted for the jam was made during the weeklong extension. The reason being for the days in October and November I actually sat down to put words down, so much of that was taken up by outlines that kept pacing around the same idea. Planning is great, but it's not the actual story. At least for me. I'd write a bit, get stuck, start wondering whether the pieces made sense... And it got easier once I gave into A) a silly premise that stretches disbelief and B) actually writing. (Of course, I haven't gotten to the other scenes, so maybe I've still got the ratios wrong, but, that's a problem for another day~)

Planning in the sense of project management, though? I really could've used that. Once I overshot my initial estimates, I kind of just stopped thinking about anything except "Once I finish this everything will come together!", and so the outlining took... well, most of the time. I was also not really sure how much I prioritised the visual novel over everything else.

To be honest, in lieu of the remaining story, I wanted to include at least a bonus scene where the two of them are more lovey-dovey and yuri. Unfortunately, I... did not get to that, apparently.

But the thing I'm most glad to get out of this jam (besides having made *something*) is that I now have baseline expectations for how long I should give myself to write scenes and draw (characters). And also, some sense of scope regarding what makes a story short or not. I'm not sure what I was on when I made entire projects in one night as a middle school and high school kid, but, no more! I'm too old for that now :P

So I guess I'll just talk about a bit of the concept of this project now.

A mature yuri romance

I'm used to high school romances, but for this project, I wanted to write yuri between adults. It's something I've managed before, and liked the results of, but I had trouble coming up with characters this time. I decided I definitely wanted a character that fit the theme of a "hot butler wife". (Just from that I'm sure it's obvious, but Sebastian Michaelis, Grell Sutcliffe, and Sora Smith from Black Butler and Hamefura, respectively, were the main inspirations.) But who would be the main character?

I could easily picture a short-haired brunette protesting as the butler picked her up, so... that's what I went with. Originally, the butler would be protecting her from danger. The mob or something, possibly related to her family. (Kind of Taiga Fujimura from Fate?) But that seemed complicated, so I scrapped it. The personality I settled on for her is one of independence influenced by a distrusting worldview. However, it wasn't until I drew her smiling that I had a better idea of where to take her character, and a scene I wanted to put into the story (and still do).

Um, as far as maturity goes though, I think that boat's sailed. This is a pretty immature premise. Which is what makes it fun ^^ Still... I'd like to depict Alice's serious side and Allie's go-getter side someday. As well as the dewy autumn that made me think, "I have to put this in the game!" *proceeds not to do that*

Well, it's been a day, a night, and a morning for me. Thank you for reading this and checking out a needle melts. I hope we can meet again soon ^^