Lenin - The Lion (FULL GAME Available on STEAM)

[J.Bueno (Lornyon)]

GET YOUR LENIN - THE LION KEY NOW ON LENINTHELION.COM OR DIRECTLY ON STEAM.
FULL GAME AVAILABLE! (12 USD)

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Lenin is an albino lion, the only one of his kind, and because of that he feels insecure and constantly discouraged. Worse, his mother doesn't understand why his son was born this way, and the whole village despises him and treats him cruelly. At school, he suffers bullying and can’t concentrate on class.

Now, hopeless about life, certain situations seem to awaken in Lenin something that is not of everyone’s reality, but only of his. Something he will discover to be part of something else.
Besides, Lenin will find other animals species , which may help him to understand himself.
However, things are getting dangerous and Lenin needs to take care with his actions (your actions).

Traveling between daily life and a strange place, Lenin will have to face his inner fears and enemies – and often, the outer ones as well.

Lenin - The Lion is like a typical aerial-view RPGs of SNES or Gameboy Color classics. The difference here is given by some criteria:

• There are no battles or levels: all actions taken by the player are through conversations with NPC's, puzzles and varied options.
  
• There is always more than one choice to proceed: yes, though many games work with "moral choices", in Lenin - The Lion choices don't change the character profile, but how is the unfolding of the main plot. With this in mind, don't expect multiple paths inside of the same part of the story. Your actions change the FUTURE scenes of the game, as well the endings of each area, unlocking new conversations with NPC's and different endings for the game as a whole.

• A teenager's world and his struggles.
  
• No battle systems or levels.
  
• Lenin’s backpack is his menu. Losing it means not having access to the menu.
  
• Items and puzzles are crucial in the interactions between Lenin and the others.
  
• Choices determine the different endings of the game.
  
• Original art / soundtrack.
  
• Anthropomorphized characters.
  
• A cute and unique main character

Spoiler: Screenshots

Spoiler: Awards

 

[BeeGamer]

Ahhhh, I saw your game on Tumblr and I must say that was one of the reasons I registered here! *O*
I think you may have heard that many times, but I loved the style you adopted in the game, and the story really caught my attention.
I can not wait to play a demo or whole game!
If you need beta testers, you can talk to me!
Kisses and good luck! <3

 

[J.Bueno (Lornyon)]

Hello fellows! This is the video of my *******! If you still don’t know what’s that, take a look at this video and consider support me!

If you already know *******, watch the video anyway because it has a few seconds of gameplay and a beautiful official game song for Lenin! If you can hardly understand my English, the video has subtitles in Portuguese and in English haha (sorry beforehand). <3

 

[J.Bueno (Lornyon)]

Lenin - The Lion Demo is out!
DOWNLOAD IT ON ITCH.IO!

Lenin - The Lion (Official Trailer).

 

[Milk Bar Prophet]

Hi João! I was hesitant to write it at first, but your game looks so incredibly cute, you've no doubt put a lot of effort in it and most importantly, it promises to be about depression and I think there will never be enough games that can tackle this super important subject that is still in XXI century regarded as a taboo even in developed countries...
BUT! (that's the biggest BUT the forum allows)
the choice of your protagonist's name might put off (and even has potential to offend) some of your potential players. To me it seems rather jarring and clashes with the main theme of the game, which, as I understand, is depression, NOT: class struggle, revolutionary socialism, communism, Marxism, Leninism or anything else associated with this guy here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Lenin

I'm not a conservative person, rather far from it, but unless I'm missing something, I see a conflict of interests here. I would fully understand this choice of name (and maybe even support it) if you were making a game about any of above mentioned topics, but since there's nothing in the description that's suggesting it's related in any way to the historical person known as Lenin (or his ideas), it leaves me greatly confused. It doesn't offend me personally, but it's baffling. And reading through your game's description I'm not sure if that was your intention.

I'm not going to tell you what you should do or don't (because 1. I'm not your dad and 2. We're living in a free world, you can do your game about anything you want and name it how it pleases you). For all I care, you can name the protagonist of your next game Hitler the Horse, Mussolini the Mouse, Castro the Cat, Putin the Penguin or Trump the Tiger.

But if you really mean to make a game about depression without any visible marxist-leninist undertones, maybe you should consider renaming the protagonist? I understand it's pretty late in the production process, with the demo out and ******* set, but maybe it's not too late (it will be only when the full game's released). The reason I'm suggesting it is I wish your game to do well and maybe put some light on the topic of depression. As it currently stands, it looks like the title/name *might* bring some unintended/unwanted critique/ridicule towards you, the game, and for some people (like me) it will completely overshadow the very important subject it treats (which is battling depression, not world capitalism (which allows game devs like you to sell games to other people for money and sometimes even to break even, so I treat is as necessary evil).

Alright, that's my two kopeikas! I won't bang on about any Lenins anymore. Hopefully it gives you some food for thought. If not, well, maybe this comrade called a wrong number In any case, good luck with the game!

PS: I like most of your design choices and gameplay ideas. Having no battle systems/levels and losing backpack/menu sound pretty refreshing.

 

[J.Bueno (Lornyon)]

Hey, hello Milk Bar Project!

Thanks for your concern about the name, but I have to say that my Facebook page has already 2.300 followers and just a small percentage of them (maybe 5 or 6, even less) commented about it. However, when it happens, they're just kidding, not mocking. Besides, the name Lenin that I use is derivative from Lenine, that has an origin from a Hebrew name, which means calm, patience. Lenin also has a good ring with the words lion and feline. Not to mention that Lenin, the revolutionary, doesn't have a name that sound as bad and famous as Hitler did (even that some people might know and for some reason - that I really can't see why - connect it to my game. I mean, of course this name reminds Lenin, the revolutionary, because that is most likely the most famous person to ever be named like that, but I think too much to say "Oh, this game is a communist game" just because of that! It's not enough.).

But I can see your point and I understand it, but I can't change the name now and I don't want to change either (but I really appreciate your opinion - and I have to say that you're the first one to talk about it in such serious way - but it's a good thing, I guess).

For me, Lenin is a name like any other, and 95% of my players thinks the same until now.

Thank you again and I hope you play the demo!
See ya!

 

[Marquise*]

Besides, I saw once a white cat with two black spots separated in the middle straight on the head and a square black spot between the nose and the mouth very symmetrical. We really guessed well the cat's name if it wasn't Adolf!

 

[Milk Bar Prophet]

Well, I think the reaction would also depends on where one lives and how old he/she is João. As I said, it's your game and it's up for you to decide everything about it, so let's just live it at that It's great that you were able to build such a big following for Lenin in such a short time. I say, some revolutionaries would be jealous!

@Marquise I couldn't think of a better name for that particular cat!

 

[J.Bueno (Lornyon)]

He-yo people! There's a Crowdfunding Campaign for Lenin - The Lion on Catarse.me/lenin_the_lion
If you enjoyed the demo and want the game to be finished, please consider be a backer of the project on Catarse!
Tier's values starts at $6,50 (USD). Thanks again and I wait for your support!

 

[Zizka]

Art is looking so good! Reminds me of the Little Prince, which is always a good thing. Everything looks spot on. Good luck!

 

[Pine Towers]

Hitler the Horse, Mussolini the Mouse, Castro the Cat, Putin the Penguin or Trump the Tiger.

A 4 man (animal?) party in the middle of the Second Anthro War between Hitler the Horse and Stalin the Stallion. Now I want a game like that.

João, sorry for not playing your game right now, PC is quite unstable, but I couldn't avoid to see that screenshot about fighting the patriarchy... And it got me curious.

 

[Benny Jackdaw]

If I had a reliable way of buying stuff online, I would help this. I love seeing games with anthro/non-human stars in them, and tend to have more fun playing games with anthro/non-human goodguys/protagonists in them.

As for the name Lenin, I had a similar thing happen around my dad. I was writing a Fakemon fanfic that I told my parents about, and my dad threw a fit because I named one of my protagonists "Salazar." Apparently he thought I named him after some drug lord or something. Ultimately, I had to explain to him very simply: It's just a name. Heck, I didn't even know who my dad was talking about at the time, and I still kind of don't. But at the same time, Salazar had no relations to the drug lord (or whatever). I feel like Lenin might be one in the same: it shares the name of someone from history who was unjust, but at the same time: it's merely a name. It doesn't actually mean anything. ...I mean, it does, but it's meaning does not relate to any one particular person named Lenin.

 

[Ninakoru]

João, the game is looking really great! I have to say the art is INCREDIBLE. Best of luck!

BUT! (that's the biggest BUT the forum allows)
the choice of your protagonist's name might put off ...

Didn't know those names were restricted only to monsters of the real world history. Then I should be ashamed to be named Alejandro by my parents because there was a Macedonian Dictator with that name long ago?

Seriously, only most recent history monsters could be really off putting to the audience, shouldn't be a real concern... Names are names.

 

[Pine Towers]

@Ninakoru , I have to agree with you. But (and I'm not going to increase the font size for it), We're not saying it is wrong for the protagonist be named Lenin. We are expressing concern because this might have a negative impact on the game's sales because of the prejudice attached to that name. If we did not cared, we wouldn't post about it and let him go its own way. But by the looks of it, both the game and the merchandising are well beyond the time where he could easily change the protagonist's name.

A game whose protagonist is named Adolf may sell poorly in Germany, even if isn't about that Adolf.

Off-Topic:

Spoiler

Alexander the Great was, pun intended, a great man and conqueror. You should be proud of your name.

 

[Orb]

The retro look of this game is fantastic, and the plot seems interesting It kinda reminds me of Mother 3 for some reason

A game whose protagonist is named Adolf may sell poorly in Germany, even if isn't about that Adolf.

I highly doubt it. Lenin wasn't that bad anyway (compared to Stalin, lol)

 

[Milk Bar Prophet]

Didn't know those names were restricted only to monsters of the real world history.

Who told you that mate? Not me, that's for sure.

Then I should be ashamed to be named Alejandro by my parents because there was a Macedonian Dictator with that name long ago?

First, I don't think you should. Alejandro is a popular name, unlike Lenin or Adolf, or Benito even. Even Lady Gaga sang about you, I wish mine was as popular! I know few Alexanders (plus a couple Alexandras) myself and they aren't ashamed at all about that filthy 2000+ year old Macedonian

The difference between Alejandro/Alex and Lenin though is pretty huge. One is ancient history, the other - not that ancient. Of course it may be relative to some (what is what isn't ancient history), but as I said above, it depends on the age of person and the country in which one lives. FYI, in most ex-Soviet bloc countries Lenin is still relatively fresh memory, because of the communism (for which he was partially responsible for) ended only about 27 years ago or so, so many people remember it vividly, and unfortunately not in a good way - the wounds are still fresh in this part of the world.
As you're Spanish, let me ask you, if you were making a game for kids about cute animal trying to overcome his fear/make world a better place etc, would you name your character Francisco Franco? I'm not going to lecture you on history here, or what's proper/improper, I'm just genuinely curious.

Seriously, only most recent history monsters could be really off putting to the audience, shouldn't be a real concern...

See, "most recent" is relative. What may be abstract and meaningless to one, can be very real and meaningful to other... And the other way round

Names are names.

... and then some.
https://www.behindthename.com/name/alexander

For the sake of all future conversations I feel the need to point out that João made up his mind, the lion stays Lenin and it renders all further discussion on the topic kind of pointless. I'd rather if we went back to talk about the game itself (content, gameplay etc etc) and its kickstarter campaign (btw good luck João) not drag on this. In hindsight, I should've probably shrug my shoulders and walk on by, but well, too late now, I'll know better next time. As Pine Towers said, I was only concerned about the prejudice some people might have towards the game, even before playing it. To put it bluntly: in countries like mine (ex-Soviet bloc) majority of the parents would think twice about buying their kid game titled "Lenin the Lion", simply because they'd expect it to be some kind of communist propaganda game in the first place (Yes, people are prejudiced, but who's to blame? Not João, obviuously) And IMO that's a huge shame, because the game looks fabulous and takes on a VERY important topic.

 

[Ninakoru]

As you're Spanish, let me ask you, if you were making a game for kids about cute animal trying to overcome his fear/make world a better place etc, would you name your character Francisco Franco?

Haha! bad luck with you example mate. My younger brother is named Francisco Javier (Franco is a surname), and this is no joke/trolling... Actually Francisco is more of a Religious/Popular name than anything, is not offensive at all (Like mine! I was joking a bit...).

I perfectly get you point. And if you feel so I won't lecture you too and I should agree/trust your words If you are from an eastern country.

We should let this sub-topic die if only to respect João's amazing work. I'll try the demo soon and give some feedback BTW.

Thankfully this game will make some people think about a white peculiar Lion instead of that Monster (he truly was) when they hear 'Lenin', that would be a small accomplishment.

 

[J.Bueno (Lornyon)]

Hello guys! Thanks for your comments (even the ones about the name thing, since it's always good read some different opinion). In fact I'll not change the characters name because of the production time and because here on Brazil (where I live) this name is just a name, and like I said before, only a few people even comment about it and when they do it's only jokes and similar stuff, nothing serious (but I completely respect and understand people that doesn't like it.) I'm really sorry if the name offends some people, but at the time that I chose it I was only thinking about Lenine and how it sounds cool alongside "The Lion".

But, regarding the game itself, if you guys enjoyed the demo, please, spread the word about the crowdfunding campaign. We're with 26% of the campaign and 22 days to go! All the help is more than welcome and the tiers starts at $8. Thank you guys! <3

CROWDFUNDING CAMPAIGN LINK
https://www.catarse.me/lenin_the_lion

 

[J.Bueno (Lornyon)]

Guys, after so long I came to announce the official release of the game. The expected date is September 27th.
In addition the final trailer of the game is available.
Take a look if you want
See you guys.

 

[Raizen]

Yeah! I had seen the trailer before it is amazing! Congratulations for the good work put into the game, I really hope it does well on Steam!
Having such a delicate subject which is depression and other issues is a challenging job, but I believe it has been done with perfection!