Do Not Be Friends With Bianca

[CallMeKerrigan]

tl;dr this game contains graphic content​

Do Not Be Friends With Bianca Ida Poe contains graphic language, content, and images. There is a scene where the main character, Eileen, speaks with a Christian priest and you have the option of praying with him. Also, there is an optional quest requiring you to break and enter into a church. There are triggering themes involving bullying, abuse, and suicide. None of the characters represent my point of view or a culture. This is a fictional work. Player discretion is advised.

tl;dr game synopsis​

This is a very personal work, and also my first video game. This video game personifies our inner demons. The main character, Eileen, after searching for love, finds herself victim of a very bad experience and her own naivety. Shortly after her bad experience, a sort of spirit appears only Eileen can see. This woman calls herself Bianca. Bianca is everything Eileen has needed to heal from the pain. She’s fun, she’s beautiful, she makes Eileen forget everything. Bianca forms a bond with Eileen, earning her trust. Bianca easily influences Eileen, and Eileen, blindly following, soon realizes Bianca isn’t all she claims, but it may be too late to back out of their friendship.

tl;dr game mechanics​

The mechanics of this game involve a 2D open world you explore as Eileen. You only know what the player knows as the story goes on. By interacting with objects you may discover things about other NPC’s or yourself. This game has a quest, currency, HP, MP, and Experience system. There is also a relationship system. AI is implemented into the NPC’s. They will remember how many times you’ve spoken to them, they will remember how you treat them, and they know who else you have been talking with. Depending on all of this, they can give you special rewards such as Max HP limit, HP points, quests, items, or can even effect you negatively (One character upon befriending spams your text message inbox). HP is important as it needs to be of a certain limit for Eileen to react with items, and therefore complete quests. Completing quests prevents you from winning the game.
Sometimes quests will conflict with each other, and if Eileen does not complete the right one, the game will end. This game is heavily influenced by strategical choices, and could require a couple playthroughs to reach the ending.

tl;dr game completion​

I estimate this game to be completed early to mid 2016, depending on how much I really expand on Eileen’s world. I hope to have at least 2 hours of play time. This game will be free to play, and any income I receive will be ad revenue which will be split fairly between me and my colleague who wants to draw the main characters. Any artist who’s resources I used are licensed under Creative Commons 3.0 by attribution, and they will be tipped if I make any revenue.

tl;dr the theme of the game ​

The theme of this game revolves around moving on, accepting oneself, not always getting our way, and living with our inner demons. It is not a slasher, there are no battles. Not even with words. This game involves exploration and story immersion, and is therefore, not for everyone.

 tl;dr stuff about the main characters​

Lastly, I want to introduce you to Eileen. Eileen is your average Jane. She is a young adult, on her own with friends, with hobbies, with interests. She likes to try new things, and has something kind to say about everyone. She is naïve, and quick to trust. She believes she lives in a perfect world, and has the perfect life. Her favorite thing to do is make other people smile. She leans on her best friend, Victor, who is much older than her, for a lot. Victor is the other half of Eileen. The more reasonable half, the smarter half, but the bolder half. They compliment each other and one has a hard time without the other. Victor keeps Eileen grounded, but she lets him know what it’s like to fly.
Bianca, on the other hand, is everything Eileen wants to be. Fierce, she stands up for herself, she knows what she wants. She teaches Eileen how to have fun, how to be bold. She teaches Eileen to be independent, how to be beautiful, how to be loved. Bianca herself has no soul, no personality. She is a figment of Eileen’s wants, greed, and fears, which is what makes her so physically beautiful.

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Game Graphics​

 

Character Concepts​

Spoiler

 

Gameplay In Action​

(Note: Graphics are not finalized)​

Progress Bar​

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Credits (will add as displayed/mentioned)​

Spoiler

Neonblack’s Relationship System (RM Coalition Pack)
SoulPour777 Mail System
Galv’s Space Invaders Script
Bougainvillea/Shigekichi Tilesets
Ryu Tilesets
Looseleaf Sprite Generator
Modern Tileset + shop add-on by Lunarea
Atelier Animated Title Screen
Window Screen by Ita Holy
Old Window Screen by VexedEnigma (Pop! Horror City Bundle Winkdowskin 2 )
Eileen’s and Virgil’s edited bust is from the DS+ pack Artists are Archeia, EvilEagles, Tobby Ong, and Caz
Face by Momope
Victor’s bust is an RTP edit and credit goes to Enterbrain

Eileen's New Face is drawn by Gezmodo

Official DS and DS+ tilesets

Mack Tilesets

Bed Tilesets by Indrah

High Fantasy Resource bundle by Pioneer Valley (PV) games

Grass edits by Liberty/Ksi

Rural Farm Tiles by Celianna (Kitchen in Eileen's Home)

Zombie Survival Graphic Pack

Always Sometimes Monsters by Vagabond Dog and Emilio Aceves-Amaya

Many Tiles by Ayene-Chan

Church Pews by Vitamin Dog

Black Chairs in Eileen's home by Tsurugi

Stained Glass windows inside church by The Flower Language of Cactus

Many town resources by Kuromaku

Classic School Tiles by Sherman3D

Romantic Garden by Lunarea

Valentine Tiles by Sherman3D

 

[taistelusopuli]

Interesting. I hope you get to finish the game! I'd love to play it. The premise and setting sound interesting. You have presented things well here. The screens make me a bit confused though... PoopCraft..? The mirror breaking screen and the early design of the city street look nice

 

[CallMeKerrigan]

Thanks. =]

The biggest issue I'm having with is mapping, which is why I don't have many map screenshots up, yet. D:

It's still in prototype stage. My map looks pretty messy with all the unfinished graphics and placeholders. Heh.

I should have added context to the mini game. I have a childish sense of humor. There's a little bit of comic relief in the game. Poopcraft is a mini game, I used Galv's space invader script and just made my own graphics. You're a toilet brush and you shoot cleaner at falling poo (I know it's immature, but I thought it was amusing). If you reach a certain score you get a reward. It's just an optional quest. =]

 

[Julien Brightside]

Sounds like an interesting game so far.

 

[taistelusopuli]

Thanks. =]

The biggest issue I'm having with is mapping, which is why I don't have many map screenshots up, yet. D:

It's still in prototype stage. My map looks pretty messy with all the unfinished graphics and placeholders. Heh.

I should have added context to the mini game. I have a childish sense of humor. There's a little bit of comic relief in the game. Poopcraft is a mini game, I used Galv's space invader script and just made my own graphics. You're a toilet brush and you shoot cleaner at falling poo (I know it's immature, but I thought it was amusing). If you reach a certain score you get a reward. It's just an optional quest. =]

Okay Cool! I guess the mini game is somehow related to cleaning then..? =S

Those will come in time, the maps and such. I look forward to seeing more!

 

[Gezmok]

If we make a website to promote this you should let me help you out with the descriptions. I took business so I kinda know what kind of things to say to convince people to want your "product."

For example: " This game is heavily influenced by strategical choices, and could require a couple playthroughs to reach the ending."  This sounds a little discouraging... wording it as [Genre: Puzzle, Difficulty: hard] maybe better. People usually don't play games if they feel like they'd never have a chance at beating it on their own.

but lol I know your just excited to share xD 

 

[CallMeKerrigan]

Update: added a progress bar 

 

[CallMeKerrigan]

Update: Massive graphics overhaul. Main town mapping is in final version. Logo in final version. Title shortened to "Do Not Be Friends With Bianca". Eileen's faceset in final state. 

Demo is estimated to be released within the next one or 2 months. No final date.

Full game estimated to be released mid 2016.

A wordpress promoting and hosting the final game will also be up soon. No plans to deviate from original free-to-play method. No plans to deviate from original story or characters.

Progress bar will be updated by the end of the week. There will be too many big changes this week to update it right now.

 

[Ｍａｒｓｈ]

This seems like a pretty well made game. I always get kinda excited for new RPG Maker games, so I'll keep an eye on this.

 

[trevers18]

I'm slightly confused by the quests thing. You say, "Eileen needs HP to complete quests" and then you say, "Completing quests will prevent you from winning the game." So, what's the ultimate goal? Other than that, this looks really interesting and I can't wait to see it!

 

[CallMeKerrigan]

Wow thanks for the encouragement!

@trevers18 sorry I should have been more clear in my original post. Every choice effects the game, the NPC's, your environment. Some things effect you negatively, and you don't find out until it's too late.

The point of the game is for Eileen to overcome her bad experiences with skills and positive quest outcomes.

HP represents mood. It is always static, but goes down or up depending on what you interact with or what tasks you do. But when it is too low, you can no longer do any quests, and proceed with the game until you raise your HP.

MP represents sleep. It can be used to perform skills to raise Eileen's mood. It deteriorates throughout the day, and once it is empty, and your HP is too low, you can 'rest' to fill both bars up. But 'rest' has a cool down of 15 minutes (cool down decreases with each level).

So, essentially it is basically a puzzle. To get to the end, you need to make choices strategically. Quests are the only way to get to the end, but you have to overcome the difficulties the quests present in an unusual way. Some quests are good, and some are bad. I guess the most straightforward way to get to the end is to always keep your mood bar as high as you can.

I hope that makes sense.

 

[CallMeKerrigan]

I talk about the game in this YouTube video. A couple things have changed and so have the character graphics.

I'll update the development thread to reflect this in a bit.

 

[GALER]

Pretty unique!

 

[CallMeKerrigan]

Thank you. It has been about a year, I've been working hard. I just lost the file because the data was unfortunately corrupted. I have an older backup so Im debating about where I want to start over. Hopefully it will eventually be finished, though.

 

[GALER]

Thank you. It has been about a year, I've been working hard. I just lost the file because the data was unfortunately corrupted. I have an older backup so Im debating about where I want to start over. Hopefully it will eventually be finished, though.

Oh believe me, this happened when making my game a few times too. It is disheartening.

 

[JRibbons]

Oh that must be so frustrating for you! Good luck with whatever you decide to do - would be great to see you continue it but looks like you achieved a lot simply in the progress you made, so there would be no shame moving on.

 

[CallMeKerrigan]

Oh that must be so frustrating for you! Good luck with whatever you decide to do - would be great to see you continue it but looks like you achieved a lot simply in the progress you made, so there would be no shame moving on.

Thanks

And yeah I'm just going to start over. It might go in a different direction but I don't think theres no way it's not being finished because the idea is pretty solid. If anything the process may go quicker now that the path is much clearer in front of me.

 

[leenat40]

Looks interesting. I will try it as soon as a demo becomes available, in the meantime, would you like to try my early project? https://forums.rpgmakerweb.com/index.php?threads/chronicles-of-zemak.77084/