Happy July, everyone! June was a very busy month for us—Canvas Menagerie’s writing is almost done and we announced a new game! So without any further ado, let’s look at our work in June.
Canvas Menagerie
In June I was able to get another 6k written for Canvas Menagerie as well starting to go through some of the beta feedback.
There’s still a few more scenes to wrap up, but the script is so, so close to being done! Now that our next demo is out for our newly announced project, I’ll be focusing on finishing the script for Canvas Menagerie and getting Act 2 ready for playtesting.
If you’re interested in playtesting, join our Discord server so you can see when the next round of playtesting starts!
Crimson Waves on the Emerald Sea: Amaranthine Sea
I’m one of the cohosts for Otome Jam, but this year I wanted to enter with an otome game idea I’ve had for years—a standalone sequel to Crimson Waves on the Emerald Sea, featuring an adult Lucie as the main character.
Synopsis
In an alternate Victorian world, vampires are part of every day life. But when an actual cure to vampirism is discovered, not everyone takes too kindly to the disturbance in the status quo…
Determined to make her own destiny as she turns 18, the young head of her family Lucie plunges headfirst in the conniving world of business dealings. Before she’s able to seal the deal on a revolutionary treatment to vampirism, her business partner suddenly dies. Lucie finds herself embroiled in the middle of the mysterious death of her former partner and an event from a decade prior…
Otome Jam
As part of this year’s Otome Jam, we released the first demo for this new project, with the full release slated for the end of 2024. This project is a standalone otome sequel to CWES, following Lucie about 5 years after the events of the first game as she decides what she wants out of life- but life has much more in store for her when her almost business partner winds up dead.
There’s a survey at the end of the demo so if you end up playing all the way through it then we’d appreciate feedback so we can make the rest of the game better!
The Team
Most of my games are solo ventures, as was the original Crimson Waves on the Emerald Sea, but for this one I wanted to have a team to help with development.
Director – Arimia
Writer – Runa
Runa Liore Winters is a writer and game developer whose work explores the mysterious, horrifying, and comforting things hiding in the dark. She frequently writes religious horror, queer romances, classic mysteries, and supernatural adventures with influences ranging from Shirley Jackson to 07th Expansion. On a typical day, Runa is typing at her desk, thinking about girls, and indulging the whims of her devious cat, Trundle.
Editor – Iron
Iron is an editor who has been around in indie VN spaces since 2018 and has recently gotten back into editing work. CWES-AM is her second game with Crystal Game Works – she previously edited Asterism. You can find her on Discord in the DevTalk server, and her (mostly unused) X account is @Ironforpistons.
Sprite Artist – kokokuhi
CG Artist – meiiqu
Logo Artist – baguetti
A lot of work went into it in the past 2 months and I hope it shows in the demo! This is a project I’ve thought about making ever since I released the first game and it’s great to see it coming together.
You can play the demo on both Steam and itch.io. Wishlisting the game on Steam will help us greatly once it comes time to release!
Aside from being the director, I also did all of the programing and scene direction you see in the demo! If you played Canvas Menagerie’s demo or Asphodelium, then it’s a similar directing style as what’s in those games. I haven’t seen many otomes with indepth scene direction so I want to bring that to the indie otome sphere.
There’s a survey at the end of the demo, so if you end up trying it out, feel free to give your feedback on what we can improve!
— Arimia
