#devlogs

Narrative and Themes

Spent most of the week working on the narrative of the game and what exactly i want to tell with this narrative!

I don't want this game to just go through the motions of a self insert fan game, i want it to add something to the player besides being a Caine date sim

So the objective is to be a indulgent fantasy game but also make the player think about the game's themes I've seen that i'm very good with structures but I'm kinda lacking in dialogue, so i'm having the help of a few writer friends for interactions and writing!

If you guys wish to send me fanfics that get it right and maybe give me tips for writing dialogue, i'll love to hear from you!

For now I'm making character studies and profiles, i'm so excited to where this project is going!

Art Concepts

For art concepts i've had some attempts to see what i like visually

The last one was my favourite but not exactly what i'm looking for. I want something a bit webcore and with some nice rendering

I saw some art and now i've tried to adjust the style

I'm way more happy with this style, it looks more polished and date sim like in my vision, without it being too bland

Tell me what you guys think of this style, but then again don't get too attached, things will change in the process and maybe even in the production stage!

Music production

I really love music in games but to be fair, i don't know much about music production

I've been learning about it and trying out some tunes (they kinda trash but we don't mention it)

I'm a big fan of vocaloid music, i think some chiptune, guitar and piano (isn't that just Steven Universe music?) might go along with the theme.

Ending Thoughts

This week i'll focus in structuring the story beats and maybe making a visionboard about the game's looks and aesthetics. I'll maybe make some sketches for some of the sprites of Caine and the Cast

Thank you for the support on this project! All questions are welcome! ♡

"Asphodelium" is a combination of "asphodel" and "lilium". Both of these are flowers related to death, grief, and regrets.

Asphodelium is a melancholic slice-of-life visual novel about literally living with your past regrets, your grief manifested into your new roommate that you have to help. Because of this, I wanted the visual novel to have more narration than I usually write so as to set the mood of the story more effectively.

Most visual novels nowadays are displayed in ADV mode, which is short for adventure mode. It’s where the textbox is at the bottom of the screen and is what most people think of when they say "visual novel".

(for example, my other visual novel Canvas Menagerie is in ADV mode)

However, I’ve always been a fan of NVL mode and felt it was more effective for delivering long narration segments. NVL mode, which is short for novel mode, is where the textbox covers most or the entire screen. That’s the format I knew I wanted for Asphodelium.

I designed the GUI for Asphodelium, using free to use assets from Clip Studio. I combined and edited them into what you see here. It’s very simple but evocative of what I wanted.

Asphodelium is lite horror (a doppelganger of the ex-cult leader you killed finds you) but it’s also partially fantasy, with magic being a part of the world but kind of a back seat in this story itself. Still, I wanted the user experience to invoke a bit of that fantasy feeling.

For the GUI & logo, I had a few key elements:

flowers (namely an asphodel)

ornate (but not overly detailed)

fantasy & ethereal

lots of periwinkle

The asphodel being the main element of the game is important since, well, it’s the title of the game and represents regrets and remembering someone after death. The story is set in a turn of the century-esque world, not quite Victorian but not quite modern, as magic has improved people’s living standards but the electric age isn’t in full swing just yet.

I also love the color purple and making my games very blue & purple and with Aster’s hair being periwinkle & blue it fits the game well. It’s also a great way to set the mood, as the blues & purples are more somber.

You can see this best in the logo, designed by Baguetti.

She provided several different concepts for how the logo could look based on the above criteria. My favorites were A, H, and I!

We ended up proceeding further with A, as it had such a striking fantasy vibe. I really liked the silhouette dissolving into the flower petals as they fly off.

The next part was determining how to display the font! Baguetti again provided a lot of choices for how to style the title as well as flower choices for behind the silhouette.

We ended up going with something in between 2 and 3 and making the silhouette look closer to Aster. The final result was…

With the artwork, it keeps the very melancholic fantasy vibes I was looking for.

If you haven’t played Asphodelium yet, check it out! It’s free and around 4 hours long. I haven’t spoiled anything here that’s not already on the itchio page.