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English Otome - Blog Posts
We’ve all been there, don’t worry...
As you all know (or at least those who DO know) I’m working on an Otome game! I have the story plot down, I know how I’ll be making it and I have the characters down! I just wanted to share with you all some concept sketches for some of the characters!!!
#1 is a concept sketch of the one of the love interests! He is Alex and he’s a florist.
#2 is “Joshua” I use quotes because he personally asks that you specifically call him “Joshua” he is a strange man who will aid or bring the worst of the worst to the MC depending on your choices and the route you decide to take!!!
I’ll add more concept art when I get the chance! Let me know what you think, and if you have any questions or ideas please don’t hesitate to send me a message!
Please check it out. And make sure to play part 1 and 2 as well. Finishing this part got me emotional. I hope everyone enjoys!
Shizuo's Part 3 Download
Shizuo part 3 is finally here!
Per usual, the password is "Pudding". The guide for his part 3 is also in the description of the download page on Itch.io.
We hope you enjoy Shizuo's part 3!
Giving this one an extra reblog for the funzies.
Shizuo’s part 2 has been released!
The team had a lot of fun planning this announcement artwork, as we couldn’t resist throwing in this meme.
If Shizuo didn’t do what he did during a certain scene, you all might have had to take the dominant approach, dear players!
Per usual, the password is “Pudding”. You can download part 2 here!
We hope you enjoy part 2 of Shizuo’s route! Depending on how things go, Shizuo’s part 3 might come out around his birthday as well!
Please check it out. Reblog. Spread the word. It was lots of fun working on it. And make sure to play part 1 if you haven't.
Shizuo’s part 2 has been released!
The team had a lot of fun planning this announcement artwork, as we couldn’t resist throwing in this meme.
If Shizuo didn’t do what he did during a certain scene, you all might have had to take the dominant approach, dear players!
Per usual, the password is “Pudding”. You can download part 2 here!
We hope you enjoy part 2 of Shizuo’s route! Depending on how things go, Shizuo’s part 3 might come out around his birthday as well!
Please check it out if you're a fan of Durarara!! Or Shizuo Heiwajima! This was really fun to work on! Please reblog and spread the word!
Shizuo’s Part One is finished!
Thank you for your patience! Please remember to play the normal route first (the link is available on every route page along with the password). I can’t tell you how excited we were to start Shizuo’s route. It made us even happier how he had minimal problems during testing~
Download Shizuo’s part one here! The password is: Pudding
Per usual, a walkthrough will be available on the page.
We hope you enjoy Shizuo’s part one!
If you haven't seen the other parts or the normal route, please check em out before playing this one. It feels so weird to get this part done. Kinda sad, but i know it's about time we got this done and moved onto Shizuo's route. Thank you for all the support so far and stay tuned for more Ikebukuro Records! And don't forget to reblog and spread the word!
Izaya’s Part 3 is finished!
It’s been a long journey, but Izaya’s route is finished. We look forward to your thoughts on the endings and the conclusion to Izaya’s story in Ikebukuro Records. The password, as always, is Baccano.
Download the game here!
Reblogging AGAIN to let others know. Glitches fixed, yaaaaay
Izaya’s route part two download + bonus comic
Art by Fi. Thanks for all your hard work!
Aren’t childhood memories lovely?
We hope you enjoy both the bonus comic and Izaya’s part 2 here! Per usual, the password is Baccano.
EDIT: Good ending glitch fixed.
Updates and Responses to Feedback:
Hi all. Due to talking to some of you we thought it would be best to inform you of some changes we've made to the game since the demo was released. Most of these we had done so earlier, however after recieving feedback, we thought that this might be important
First change:
MC's new character design.
Many of you stated that in the demo, MC looked too short and young, and that it made a lot of you uncomfortable. We heard this and made the appropriate changes and the results are what you see in the above sketch. We made her chest more prominent and she should be taller--around the same height as Arabella and Anri. When we get a digital artist for the sprites, we'll make sure that she translates better to digital form. Previously, we had in story reason for her youthful appearance, but in the end both madhousefruitcake and I agreed it was too extreme, and so did some updates accordingly.
Related to this, we heard feedback stating that some of you have felt discomfort playing this game due to the MC's feminine appearance and pronouns, and that it has caused you dysphoria. We are dreadfully sorry about this, however due to technical reasons, we can't provide the players with a gender selection. The game is incredibly long, with over 30 character sprites. That's not taking into account the expressions each of those characters would have within the game. So we hope that you can understand the need to restrict ourselves to one gender. The reason we chose female and not gender neutral is both due to plot and game genre. Traditionally, otome games are made for girls, so we thought it would be wise to stick to the demographic we were aiming for. If this effects you and you still want to play the game, we consider viewing the MC as separate from you (I know I know, that kind of defeats the purpose doesn't it). If not, we completely understand not wanting to, and thank you for playing anyway.
The other change:
Since the demo was released last year, we have gone back and edited a lot of the scenes and dialogue. The specific example we're talking about today are the "I'm straight lines". When we looked back, myself and madhousefruitcake agreed and thought that multiple characters commenting on how straight they were was really stupid, clunky and unnatural, so we have since changed it. However, as of recently we have been made aware of just how glaring the lines were to some of you and we felt the need to update everyone on these changes. The mistake was made thanks to a slip in the editing and more than one script writer. We will try to avoid something like this happening again. With the exceptions of a few, most of the characters sexualities would be more ambiguous or unmentioned for now on. For the most part, our aim is to get the most accurate depiction of the series we can get through lots of reading and research, in order for the player to feel like they're actually taking part in the world of durarara. Any mentions of sexuality for now on would be either for plot reasons, or because the dialogue naturally fell a certain way.
We hope that these issues didn't turn any of you off Ikebukuro Records, but if they have, hopefully this new information will spark your interest in it again. Please let us know of more feedback you have, and feel free to ask questions.
Please consider donating to our ko-fi so that we may someday afford all the required digital artists. I'll leave the link at the bottom of this post. We will give you more art and script updates as development and donations continue. Thank you for your time.
-Ms.
This is another case of "please spread the word" because it's really important.
News regarding art in the game
So I talked to my former digital artist yesterday and she told me that she doesn’t want her art in the game. We were originally going to keep the art style of the demo until day 4 of each bachelor route, but to respect her wishes, the art style will completely change in the full game.
It’s a bit inconvenient, but we’ll still send her drawn sprites, CGs, and backgrounds to the new digital artist once we get one for reference. At this point, I highly doubt a new digital artist would draw the amount of artwork in the game for free (we might get one for backgrounds and one for sprites and CGs), so we’re probably going to have to pay the artist(s). We’re still pondering over what to do, but we’re considering setting up a Buy Me a Coffee page, but it’s not set in stone yet. However, please note:
We will not use the donations for anything else but to pay the artist(s) and the game will still be free. Seeing people enjoying the game is all the payment we need.
Now, this wouldn’t start until the scripts are done. There would be no point in hiring artist(s) just to have them wait around. However, we’re still looking for a manga x anime style for the characters. If the sprite and CG artist finds it easier to draw one more than both, that’s okay too.
We’ll also be changing Riku, Arabella, and MC’s outfits, along with Riku and MC’s hairstyle. I can’t give spoilers, but they’ll have a more modern look. Their eye shapes, heights, and colors will remain the same though.
Thank you for reading!