Introduction:

Hiiii, my name is Helling you may know me (probably not) from social media as @Hellinglovesband or @Hellinghell. And this is the first test release of my visual novel. I'm mostly an artist but I've always had an interest in visual novels, and it was really only the summer of this year where I actually found out about Ren'py and started learning how to code and actually make a visual novel. I made a lot of test games in the past so this is my first time actually publishing one to itch.io. So you can consider this a test of sorts. (Even this devlog is a test of some sorts). Before this, I was drawing art pieces, learning how to animate on Live2D and trying my hand at webcomics so I've put all those skills to good use in this demo.

Game Intro:

TW: Minor depictions of blood, swearing

You can find the overall summary for the storyline and more information within the game page but here's the overview of it.

Taking place in a semi post apocalyptic world. A future where an unknown bacteria has caused strange mutations within the human body. They eventually lose themselves and become creatures given the name "Evelings". This phenomenon has long been suppressed by the government, rarely anybody is screaming for their lives and it seems life had gone back to normal. You play as agent no. 823 in the futuristic district of "Genesys" (Yes, it's spelled that way on purpose), as they follow their daily life of clearing out escaped Evelings. The government is controlled by 7 ministries working towards the welfare of the district. Even though there are noticeable questions about the way they run things, nobody has ever questioned the prime minister, Lucien. One day, some Evelings began to show signs of abnormality, and though it was brushed off at first, the rising doubt inside agent no. 823's mind solidified when the prime minister tried to cover up the abnormality from the media. Following that event, the president of the ministry in charge of the media had been found dead due to an "accident", and the top suspect became the prime minister. However, no matter how much the evidence pointed to Lucien, it seemed like the 3 main people around agent no. 823 refused to believe he was at fault. Additionally, a mysterious figure who is also willing to find out more about the Eveling mutations.

Cassyius Elsinore- Agent no. 823's field partner of 3 years.

Eugene Faust- Chief Executive of the ministry of science who for some reason is willing to offer agent no. 823 blood tests whenever the prime minister asked.

Actaeon Sphazo- the prime minister's secretary (dog)

Icarus Aspros- The only person to have survived the feral nature of the Eveling mutations who could potentially be the cure to the Eveling virus.

With them, agent no. 823 is determined to find the true culprit behind the murder and uncover the holes within the ministries, all the while trying to recall a memory from their past which could hold the key to it all. It also doesn't help that the prime minister of Genesys District just so happened to be....their brother.

Yea so, that's the gist of that. The DEMO includes the prologue of the main story, 4 fully animated male leads with animated expressions. Semi animated side characters, mob characters, 4 animated CGs + their unanimated jpgs, mini CGs, information sheets for all the male leads + the MC. Naturally, all animated CGs will be in the "Gallery" part of the game after you've unlocked them. To unlock them, all you have to do is play the story. There's no complex choices or LP points since it is a DEMO, but all of it will be added to the full game. And of course, it's all free.

The DEMO is only in English and only available to Windows, (I have no intentions of adding new languages.)

Plans for the full game:

Can I just say that I really don't know if there's gonna be a full version. I have an entire plotline written out with all the backgrounds I need and even more side characters, but at the end of it day it really depends on me I suppose. I'll do my best to try and actually work on it, not really knowing how long it'll take, but we'll see. BUT here are my plans if I am to go through with it. The story will definitely expand on MC's insecurities and concerns in the prologue, and of course expand on the plot, character backgrounds and the overall mystery. There will be more CGs and naturally all of them will be animated completed with their unanimated jpgs. I don't think I will give the leads different outfits because then their anatomy would not look the same as before, it'll just look weird. It may sound like I'm being lazy (and I might), but it's also for the overall experience. More semi animated side characters, more mini CGs. Since this is my first Ren'py game, I do not plan on making in game achievements. (I might add achievements if I somehow manage to upload it to steam), but in game ones...maybe next time. More music will be added and of course all music is from a free royalties site but I will credit the creators of the tracks at the end of the gameplay. Oh and of course there will be LP points, different bad and good endings + character endings and choices that will actually matter later on in the game. I didn't tag the DEMO "romance" or "otome" cause there really isn't much expansion on romance but there will be in the final game so look forward to that if you will. Another thing, in the DEMO the MC is simply referred to as "they" but in the final game I plan to add different gender options you can pick and split the script into 3 different files for pronouns.  The final game will cost money, it'll be only about 2-5 dollars, I'm thinking 2 depends on how long it goes.

Policies:

Um, this is not that fancy just a bit of common agreements between me the developer and you the player.

For example 1,  downloading this DEMO/ buying the final game does NOT mean I have sold copyrights to you. This is NOT an NFT.  It is like any other game you buy/ download.

2. You can make the MC look however you want. (I don't mean you can customize them in the game), but I needed to give them an appearance so they have one but you may draw them however you wish.

3. Please, please please...do NOT feed any art for this game to AI. I'm very serious about this, don't even do this as a joke, it's not funny. I worked really hard on this game and the elements of it. Do not let this near AI, please.

4. If you want to give me criticism, I'm open to it. (Just don't be too mean please T-T). Um, if you choose to insult this game, just know im gonna be the one losing motivation. So um, if you want this game to continue, insulting me won't help. If you find this game so revolting that you want this game to not exist (I'm sorry? I don't think there's anything THAT triggering in here and I don't plan to put anything that's too triggering). I'd prefer it if you just hide this game and move on but yea.

If you just like my art or my works,  I have the link to my Carrd on my profile with links to my SM or my other works if you wanna check those out.

That concludes the devlog, I think I'll update it if there's something I missed. There's more information on the game page + "about" page in game so, there's that too.  If you got questions, you can put it in the comments of the game page or this post and I'll try my best to answer them, yea?

THANK YOU!!!