Lads in Distress

Hello!

First off, I must apologize for the long period of silence. I’ll be slowly working on answering all the previous asks sitting in our inbox, though most of them are asking about the game’s progress / status, which will be covered in this post now.

I know there hasn’t been much progress on Lads of Distress for a long while now, and many are wondering if this project is abandoned. I’d like to clarify that as of right now, I (as the project leader) personally do not have plans to abandon the project. I still plan to eventually release at least the 4 routes that have been completed script-wise, but I do hope I’ll be able to add in Ellis as well as promised.

Unfortunately, the project is just kind of in an awkward spot right now because the core team are working on their own commercial otomes / freelance work, and Lads in Distress ends up being much lower in priority as it’s unpaid work for a free project.

I’m really, really sorry for the delays, but I’ll try and see if I can at least finish and re-upload Lads in Distress updated demo by the end of this year. I’m just very much overwhelmed right now with work for my solo studio and just general irl issues.

Thank you so much to every single one of you who has continued to keep an eye out for and support Lads in Distress. I really appreciate everyone’s kind, supportive messages even after such a long time, and I’ll try and bring some concrete progress to you guys when I can.

Hey! Thank you so much for the message, and I’m so sorry for the late reply! >_<

So to answer your first question: I believe back then, Perennial Lily and I just picked our favorite fairy tales. For example, my favorite fairy tale is Rapunzel, so of course I wanted to do one on that, haha. We also picked fairy tales that we had ideas for putting a spin on things or reversing expectations. Can’t explain on this point too much without giving away spoilers for each route, but for those who have played the initial NaNoRenO version and see the endings to the 3 routes, they should know exactly what I’m referring to here.

As for the second question... I can’t speak for everyone in my team, but for myself personally... At this point, it’s not so much motivation, but just feeling like I can’t quit. First, there’s too many fans who have been waiting for this game since the initial NaNoRenO 2016 version. I would hate to disappoint everyone after all this time. Second, there’s just... so much we’ve already completed for the game. Speaking as the writer, the script is like 70% complete, and I just would really, really hate to see all of it go to waste lol. So I just never called off the project despite all the setbacks and departures from the team.

Hey there! Thank you so much for the kind message!!

I’m personally thrilled that you like Snow. He was challenging but so much fun to write, and it always warms my heart when someone mentions that they like him :”)

We won’t abandon this project for sure! There are too many fans waiting for this, so we’d feel too bad lol. It’s just been in devhell due to all the changes in artists and team members, but... we’ll get it done. Eventually.

Hey there!

So sorry for the super super late reply! I literally just saw this in the inbox lol.

To answer your questions, I think we posted the 2nd last side character sprite like a week ago. The last one will be coming soon, probably next week! Well, last side character for now — it depends if our new writer will request more side character sprites from our artist. :)

Which brings me to the next part of the answer — yep, we’ve found our new writer, Esh! This is mentioned in a bit more detail in our update post just now, so you can go check that out if you’re interested!

Hey there! So sorry for the late reply. We just made an update post explaining the situation, so you can go check that out!

No official ETA as of yet for the re-upload of the demo, but we’ll keep you guys posted! I personally hope we can get it done before September, but we’ll have to see how it goes.

Hey! Thank you for the ask, and I’m super sorry for the late reply.

For the demo, most of the programming is actually complete. We made an update post just now explaining the situation.

As for the full game, when all the assets are completed and need to be coded into the game — honestly, I (Windchimes) have considered recruiting a programmer. But the problem is the remaining programming work is basically coding in appropriate expression changes, music, CGs, etc throughout the script of each route. Which... is probably best done by me since I’m the main writer who has the best understanding of the script and characters. But if I end up too busy by the time we’re ready to do the final coding bits to put everything together, we might just recruit for someone to take this task off my hands...

Hey guys!

So it's been a few months since our last update. We're back with some more big news!

First up, the good news — we've found our new writer, who will be in charge of Mer and Ellis' routes! We're super happy to have Esh from @steamberrystudio on board, whom you might know as the creator of Changeling, a super awesome otome game that you guys should check out if you have time. We're really excited to see what great things Esh will bring to the table for Lads in Distress!

With our new writer on board, this basically means my (Windchimes) jobs for the script is completed. I'll still go over all the scripts at the end and edit for consistency in style and story details if necessary, but until then, I don't have anything to do for the script. My current only remaining task is to code in the new demo — which brings us to the next piece of news.

Slightly bad news this time around, unfortunately. So I've coded in the new sprites and art done by Melow for the demo, but unfortunately, I came to the belated conclusion that we need new buttons for the main menu because the title screen art has been redone.  The GUI artist is, unfortunately, extremely busy these days with work irl, so it might take her some time to get around to working on a new  design for the main menu buttons to fit the new title art. I also need to test through the demo some more, because I really don't want any sprites to suddenly lose their face mid-game or  become headless due to coding errors.  So we'll have to wait longer before we can re-upload the new demo again.

We're really sorry about the wait, and thank you so much for the patience and continuous support!

Extremely intelligent — perhaps too smart for his own good — this man is endlessly passionate about his work and will never shut up about his ideas if given the chance. 

Hey! Thanks for wanting to help out with the writing!

Hey anon!

Thank you for your interest in helping out with the writing for Lads in Distress (I think? Or maybe you aren't actually planning to apply and just wanted to write fanfics. That's awesome too!)

Prompts... Okay, I’m not particularly good at this, but I’ll try. I’m avoiding any prompts that might involve spoilers, though feel free to include spoilers from Mer’s route in the NaNoRenO version in your writing sample!

Your own spin on the ball scene -- i.e. first meeting between Charming and Mer or Ellis at the ball

First kiss between Charming and Mer or Ellis

Wedding between Charming and Mer or Ellis

First time Charming meets the parents of Mer or Ellis (feel free to go wild with the parents’ personalities)

Charming tries to teach Ellis magic

Ellis shows Charming a weird invention of his

Mer brings Charming back to his kingdom

Mer (as king) discusses serious business about the kingdom with Queen Charming

Hey anon!

Sorry for the super late response. I didn’t see this ask until now, rip.

We basically explained the situation of why we changed Ellis’ sprite again here: https://ladsindistress.tumblr.com/post/175658087327/important-announcement

Long story short, the previous artist left the team, so we have recruited a new artist to cover the work. Right now, we are planning on keeping the original NaNoRenO sprites done by Elzee because they’re pretty iconic for the project after all these years, so we might just sacrifice some art style consistency instead and only have Ellis’ sprite redone.

Hey anon!

So sorry for the super late answer. Your ask got kinda buried in my inbox and I didn’t notice it until now, rip.