dateariane
patreon
"Meet Relay" The mini-game
🕑 Added 2023-07-13 20:11:23 +0000 UTC
Instead of the usual pic of the week, here's a whole game!
The mini-game I announced in last weeks post is done and even fully AI voiced. The purpose of making this is two fold: 1. ) Introduce a new character that will be the main character of my next game. 2.) Tie it to the lore of the Ariane games. This is a sequel to Hopepunk City.
This mini-game does both very quickly. The player character has no avatar and is of indeterminate gender. This will obviously change when I make the actual game, but there wasn't a need at this point.
You play a college student and most of your classes are virtual and online. You see your fellow students when they ask questions in class, and one fellow student with the unusual name of "Relay Switch" you find particularly attractive.
You arrange to meet in real life for a study session. That means going to her unusual house, seeing her unusual living space, and getting to know this rather quirky girl. Watch for a character from Hopepunk City to show up in a cameo to explain the gap in time between the two games.
I don't actually have any interest in explaining the world of Hopepunk City in the next game, and the only thing I plan to lift from the game is the ungendered language, which is actually one of the more popular aspects.
Hopepunk City explored the new found freedoms and their affect on society. The next game will takes these freedoms for granted and explore how it might affect society over time. Politics is already stabilized so I can completely ignore it.
This will still be a sci-fi game with an urban "solarpunk" genre convention. But I don't want to spend a lot of time explaining the rules this time. My goals for the next game is to play like the original "Star Wars" and just dump you in a sci-fi world with no explanation and the player has to figure out the rules from the context of events.
That's why I decided to explain it in this mini-game, so I don't have to when I make the full game.
Anyways, the game is small enough and short enough I can attach the PC and Mac versions to this post. Play it and tell me what you think.
Comments
Ariane Barnes
I will not release this version to the general public, so it is a Patreon exclusive. I no longer want to think of the next game as a Hopepunk City "sequel", but rather "In the Hopepunk City universe". I'll keep the language conventions, but visually change the world: orange sky, green canopies, lawns replaced by gardens, parking lots covered in moss and turned into parks, blue solar panel shaders, white roofs, white streets, clothing consisting of t-shirts and khakis, loose wrapped and draped cloth, "vintage", or nothing. None of this will be explained in game except for the occasional hidden messages. This is supposed to be a dating sim, so details about who you are dating, what passes for entertainment, leisure, food, romance, and sex in this world is all that is important.
Ariane Barnes
Yeah, It's a mistake. I remember when I was writing Hopepunk City thinking I never used her or him only to search the text and find a bunch I missed. It is very tough to do. Searched and found 3 other "her"s and "she"s, so I am uploading again. It is always a strange challenge.
Anonymous
I'm excited about this new game. I noticed that the command options outside the apartment say "text her" and "call her," when later Relay is referred to as "them." I understand you're intending to use gender-neutral pronouns throughout the game, so I'm thinking this might be a mistake. Also, I can't help but wonder, when Brutus turns off Relay's hearing aids for the train, how she's still able to hear me ask her questions.
