Basil's Greenhouse

It’s finally here! The title screen and name of the Baxter VN! All artwork in this image is done by me :D

Later, I will write a progress report for the public as well as post up an application for writers with all of the details there. Those will most likely come out tomorrow.

I look forward to everyone’s reaction once we get a bit more finished and release some names of the people working with us! Some you may even recognize from the Our Life community.

I apologize for being incredibly inactive, Ive been away from home for 2 weeks taking a college class for programming and coding so Ive been busy. We’ve also had some writers drop out due to the lack of free time they have.

I’ll also take responsibility for being unable to script and only outline, manage, and contact people due to how busy I am.

This is the progress so far;

Scripting:

Fully outlined days 1-3

3 fully outlined memories, most of the 4th and 5th ones outlined as well (romance route)

1 fully outlined memory out of 3 for the platonic route done

18.5k words of script

Art:

Baxter sprite pretty much finished, awaiting the polished results

Baxter’s parents almost finished

1 out of 2 members of the couple finished

Sprite for an extra character done

Awaiting most other art still

…

I don’t entirely know how much I’ll be able to work on this, not only because I’ve had a completely different fixation for a while but because I’m extremely busy, especially with school starting back up.

I’ll work on this when I can but I cannot promise it won’t be another while yet. I do think I overestimated how big and doable I made this project while still having school and finding a job. On top of those are the lack of motivation I face a lot so I hope you’re all understanding <3

I do still want to see this to the end but it will probably be another while before completion.

Hello, thanks for the ask.

We do let anyone with enough experience (writing/art/programming) work on the project with us. It’s just a for fun game so i’m not going to limit that to adults only.

We do have an adult with lots of experience overseeing/editing the script if anyones worried about the quality.

But, we are not a company hiring kids. We’re a small fun project taking volunteers. No one is obligated to do anything and I provide ample breaks with very few restrictions.

I’m fine with older teens helping out if they want but it’s all their choice, they don’t have to. As long as they also have the experience.

I acknowledge that for some it would be healing to reconcile or gain closure (through speaking ones mind) but for the feel good vn our life is, this being done wrong could, at worst, trigger people, and at best come off as ignorant. I understand not wanting to spoil everything, but I feel this distinction is important.

Thank you for the ask,

To put it short, the end goal is basically for Baxter to identify where some of his thoughts and feelings about himself came from (stemming from his childhood with his parents) as well as to learn to move on and not allow toxic people into his life.

We will not portray his parents in a good light either. They are bigots and there's no redemption. It's only focused on the character growth from Baxter in opening up about it and then cutting them off.

As for if it may trigger anyone (it doesn't specifically contain any well-known triggering content, but just in case) the player does have the choice to not see them or encounter them at all. It's completely optional.

Also, I do want to mention (I will make a post about this somewhere, whether that be on social media or on the itch.io page) that since this VN diverts from direct canon, it won't be as feel-good or focus on the good side of things. I know this may be off-brand for OL , but I did want to explore the other side of things and make it more "real".

I understand that for some people, this may not be what they're looking for. If so, they do not need to feel obligated to play. I simply just want to explore his story from a more direct view instead of a just feel-good one.

Hello again, I understand where you are coming from.

Please do not tell me what I'm putting in my game though! I notice you mention what IS going to happen but I do have complete control over what is going into this project. I will not spread bigotry in my work.

Again, I understand your concern. This is only to display Baxter's own relationship with his parents. The MC barely even talks to the two at all, let alone share personal information with them. It's focused on only Baxter and them. They will not make any comments regarding MC or anything to do with race/sexuality/etc.

Also please note that there are ways to implement problematic characters without having them hate-crime anyone or show that you agree with them.

This VN is to explore Baxter as a character and show his growth away from his family after the encounter. I wanted to directly talk about his growth and share the experience of having to cut people off from your life. This VN diverts from direct canon so at this point, Baxter would not have cut off his parents yet at all. We are redoing our own version of step 4.

Also, Baxter can still feel hurt over his parents still being discriminatory. Obviously, he isn't directly affected by their actions, but he has a right to be upset with them about it and learn a lesson from it. That lesson being to not keep toxic people in your life.