Brainstorming and Ideas

Lately I've been learning about the Affinity Engine and I've been thinking about some projects I might like to make in it. Here is a short list of ideas I have.

Caesar (Working Title)

This is a concept that was penned by my partner b. I would be working on programming and game design while they focus on the writing and historical research. An overview of the story can be viewed here.

"Witch's Brew" or "The Witching Flour" (Working Titles)

In a world where all magic is driven by food and all witches identified by their hats, one young witch aspires to enter the most prestigious witch academy. Follow her as she proceeds through the entrance exam and has to tackle everything from foraging for ingredients to baking cakes and brewing spells.

This idea would be a series of minigames (as part of the entrance exam) with small VN parts in between. It would be a project that would really push and test the custom componentry part of Affinity Engine, but the story would be pretty light and mostly an excuse to do some fluffy world building and introduce cute characters.

"Little Cakes" or "Confection Connection" (Working Titles)

You work in a small bakery and balance work with meeting people who come in to your place of work, either as customers, vendors, or fellow employees. Build relationships through day to day interactions and learn more about your friends and acquaintances. Mostly a traditional VN with some additional mechanics including: picking your daily outfits which changes how strangers may perceive you, picking daily specials that may appeal to certain people, clicking on hidden hotspots in conversations to trigger hidden topics, watering the bakery's plants, and others.

This idea basically came out of a project I was working on in Ren'Py with some similar ideas behind it. I wrote some avatar customization code for that project but it never got to see any real use.

Yet to be Named

This is a game idea inspired by my recent experience rediscovering neocities and the little pockets of early 2000's internet that still exist today. It also incorporates some ideas I had for executing a multiplayer visual novel, which I think would work well as a browser game. One or two players would play the game from their virtual desktops where they customize their personal blogs, play with their virtual pets, and chat with each other. The decisions that each player makes change what choices will be available for both players further on in the game. The aesthetic is a 2004 Card Captor Sakura 'official' anime fan listing, complete with falling cherry petal graphics, and the soundtrack is the crackle of a 56k modem.