I’ve been a gamer for a long time, and I fondly remember sitting in front of my family’s TV cabinet, controller in hand (and unplugged controller in my younger brother’s) as I had Sonic dash across the screen with the help of my dad’s Sega Dreamcast. This foundation would go on to spur my interest in video games professionally, and then evolve into an fascination with “new media”, or media that is digital.
For years I’ve wanted to create video games. The systems behind them are intricate and astounding to learn about, and I find a great deal of joy in understanding the intricacies of how these games work. I can sit down for hours and create a flow-chart fake RPG skill trees. I will happily debate whether ten-percent higher damage on a weapon is better or worse than 15% higher fire rate. (“My aim is potato,” as we in my friend group are prone to saying).
Unfortunately, I’m not a programmer, so I’m not exactly a one-man game-making army. I am, however, a writer who has an established narrative world. And I just so happen to have some pretty high-level skills with Adobe Illustrator to boot.
So what can I do with…
- An interest in new media.
- The ability to draw something resembling a person.
- A pre-existing setting for my characters.
So a visual novel seems like the kind of thing that would be perfect for me to take a stab at.
At this point, I’m calling the story Ascension, but I’m not set on the name. It will follow a group of four 18-to-19-ish kids as they find a power within themselves that, quite frankly, is going to make their lives a living hell.
I’m drawing inspiration for the project from what I might call my muses: We Know the Devil and the Hiveswap FriendSim. I recommend checking both of these out on Steam.
So that’s it for now. As I write this, I’m also writing my character sheets and establishing motive for the characters, plus some artwork is in progress. I hope to have more to show than just some words next time.
Happy New Year!