#oevn

So hey I finished the visual novel I was talking about before!

Xeneize Blues is a magical realism visual novel about biting off more than you can chew, about writer's block and about the unholy, inescapable noise that overtakes your life at the most inoportune moments. It's also about being transgender and argentinian while suffering from such indignities.

This game was made in 20 days for the Noise Jam. Written, programmed and drawn by me, with guest art by @anaiaram.

Heyo~

Last update, we talked about progress being slowed for personal reasons. The last few months, we've been focusing on getting back into the rhythm of things to close out the year strong.

Sprites

Almost all sprites for story scenes are in the game! This involves getting all character sprites in-game - human, automaton, and flashback characters - and  presenting them correctly. This includes getting their expressions right, positioning them correctly, syncing them to audio and visual effects where appropriate, and more.

While side-sprites need to be implemented, they're far less complex and mostly focus on Essie.

CGs

All CGs have been inked and lined out, including our stretch goal ones! Colouring continues, but all CGs have been added to the game and play when intended.

Backgrounds

All but one background are fully coloured!

The last one is a special one. It's a mix between a background and a CG, and it's used during a climactic part of the game. While we can't spoil what it is, the ending is our most CG-heavy section, and the background is a bridge that works between the gameplay and narrative.

We'll be breaking for a few weeks to enjoy the holidays, and then continuing to work finaling. Fortunately, we're hitting the point in the project where most of our big ticket items are wrapping up, allowing us to turn our attention elsewhere. This includes:

Continuing to colour assets and test the build

Balancing QTEs

Working on the codices and the gallery

And reviewing Steam/itch.io processes.

Thanks for reading, and have a happy rest of the year!

Follow us on...

Hiring Writers!

Writer positions are now open at GB Patch Games for Our Life Beginnings & Always.

Pay Rate: 15 cents USD per word

Word Estimate: 40k-50k words (potentially more depending on how development goes and if the writer agrees)

Work load: 10k words minimum per month, can be more

Time range: Four to five months. Should be finished around late February or in March, 2023

RED EMBRACE: HOLLYWOOD — KICKSTARTER LAUNCH

† †   SUPPORT THE GAME ON KICKSTARTER   † †

†   DOWNLOAD DEMOS FOR PC/MAC/LINUX AND ANDROID   †

ADD RE:H TO YOUR STEAM WISHLIST HERE (must login to see mature content)

Story Summary:

1996. Los Angeles, California.

A young newcomer is turned into a vampire and thrust into the dark, dangerous world of Hollywood, forced to sink or swim.

You are that newcomer.

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Overview:

Red Embrace: Hollywood is a unique vampire visual novel that puts you, the player, at the heart of the story.

Choose your appearance, pick your vampire House, and make hundreds of choices that determine not only your future--but the future of Los Angeles.

In the world of RE:H, you can be anything...because you're already dead.

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Features List:

†  Genre: Drama, dark comedy, twisted romance (G/B/NB x B) †  Rating: R-17 †  Routes: 3 †  Endings: 21 †  Platforms: Steam, Google Play, Itch.io †  Estimated Release Date: Spring 2019

†  EVERY DIALOGUE RESPONSE IS A CHOICE †  Customizable MC (name, gender pronouns, skin color, hair color, eye color, bust, jaw) †  Your custom MC is shown in CGs †  Choose your own vampire House †  Have your very own (optional) human blood pet/slave, male or female †  NPCs remember how you treat them

†  READ MORE ABOUT RE:H ON THE KS PAGE  †

JOIN HOLLYWOOD ON:

Guest art I did for the VN series National Park Girls by Studio Coattails! 

There’s no new art to showcase this week, and yesterday I was too shocked by Steam’s banning campaign of sexual content in anime-style visual novels... The threat of removal only affected ecchi and yuri games, and it seems Valve has retracted on their previous threat by now, so things are more or less back to normal, but the whole visual novel community, both players and devs, is in riot right now -_-

From the writer of XOXO Academy...

Once upon a time there was an icy land, the doors of which could only be opened by a broken heart, full of despair. When an island girl loses her sister, she crosses over and enters a land memorialized by her people's songs and stories. She is well aware that it is filled with snow, ice, wolves, and most importantly... The Ice Prince. Some songs call him a monster, said to eat the hearts of maidens Others call him a master of wolves, judging by the faithful horde he's rumored to rule Others still, a youth, thousands of years old but frozen in time by the coldness of his own heart...

So this is an non-XOXO Academy related PSA. I’ve been working on a small game to kinda get myself into the groove again. It’s not out yet but it will be sometimes this month, so... here’s me letting you know about it.

The Our Life Kickstarter is Live!

Our Life: Beginnings & Always is a nostalgic Visual Novel where you create your own character and grow from childhood to adulthood with the lonely boy next door. It's currently in development by GB Patch Games.

There’s a 31,000 word demo available that’s linked on the campaign page.

Release Date: Summer 2020

Platforms: Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, Steam

Rating: 16+, for swearing, crude humor, and suggestive content during adult-aged portions of the game

Kickstarter Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/gbpatch/our-life-beginnings-and-always-a-nostalgic-visual-novel

4 different periods of life to experience; childhood, adolescence, teenaged, and adulthood

Name, appearance, personality, and pronoun (he, she, or they) customization for your character

The option to change your character's details however you like as you grow, including transitioning to new pronouns

A choice-heavy Visual Novel with frequent opportunities to shape your personality, feelings, and preferences

1 main love interest, Cove Holden, whose personality, interests, and appearance will develop in a custom way over the years based on his experiences with you

Decide for yourself how quickly or slowly the relationship develops between you and Cove by setting a unique dynamic that can change over time

6-8 hours of content that's free for everyone, plus optional paid DLCs that increase playtime

Light animation effects. The sun shines, characters blink, and more (animations can also be turned off)

Partial voice acting

A voiced name feature. Choose one of the options on a 400-name-long list and hear that name said aloud by Cove throughout the story