Topic: Buy-R-Die

[Falsely]

Buy-R-Die
A short visual novel about a completely ordinary shopping trip.


It's eleven o'clock on an October night, and you desperately need groceries.
The good news is that there's a convenience store still open at this hour, and the slightly-grouchy cashier is willing to take your money.
The bad news is that they're having trouble with the lights.

...And there's a weird green glow coming from the freezer...

Latest Screenshots:

(Probable) Features:

• A short (30~60 mins long?) visual novel that's three parts nonsense and one part horror
• Survive one strange night with the help of a person who sells cereal for a living
• Point-and-clicky interludes for all your shopping and escape route-y needs
• Teen rating (Moderate violence, mature themes, mild spookyness, strong language)
• 1280x720 resolution

Current Progress:
(13th November, 2020)
The first act of the game is coming along quite nicely and has since received a new coat of paint! It took some time to settle on a presentation style I wanted, but I think I've found something that works for me. Most of the game's dialog is going to be standard visual novel fare (i.e., dialog portraits and text boxes), but some scenes are presented in motion comic style instead. This should make the action scenes feel a bit punchier, and be good for a quick gag or two besides.

Wish I could show more of what I've already done off here, buuuuut that's the problem with such short games. Just about everything is spoilers.

Previous Notes:
(6th March, 2020)
While the skeleton of the game (story beats, mechanics, NPC portraits, some backgrounds, misc. thumbnails) is complete, it's still early days for the project. There's a whole lotta dialog left to be written, not to mention a lot of experimentation left to be done with puzzles.  I'm also not terribly happy with how some of the action scenes are currently being presented. While I'm not much of an animator, I'd like to do something beyond static images and text for this game. (I've got a few ideas in mind, but I'm not gonna get into that until I give it a try & see how do-able it is for a one person team!)

The extreme optimist in me is aiming for an October release, both because it's when the game is set and because it'll encourage me to keep things simple. But I'm also trying to finish up my degree this year, so 2021 seems much more likely.

[Darth Mandarb]

Is this being made in AGS? Thanks for the update and good luck with the production!

[Falsely]

...Annnnd then I didn't update this thread for several months. Oops. As it turns out, trying to write a story about a hostile ordinary grocery store at the start of a global pandemic -- where toilet paper kept getting wiped off the shelves and security was routinely called in to protect hand sanitizer -- was a lot harder than it sounds.

In any case, the stores down here have long since calmed down, and I'm finally settling back into things. So here's some updated gifs!

Some light exposition on the, uh, lights.



"Bored" does not mean "inattentive".



...That's not to say there's anything stopping you from stuffing your entire basket.

It's incredible what you can do with a few frames of animation and the tween module.

The first act of the game is shaping up quite nicely, but there's still much to be done on the project as a whole. Ah well. Here's to 2021, hopefully!

(Also-- thanks, Darth!)

[lorenzo]

Nice! The story sounds fun (especially the "mild spookiness" part ), and the interface looks slick!

Even small animations can take a long time to make and a lot of effort (especially at high resolution), but they add a lot to the game! Especially in a genre so static as visual novels.

I loved The World is Weird, so I can't wait for this to come out! Best of luck with development!