Hi besties, it’s been a long time since the last Chim Issues!! So let’s not waste time, and let’s get started!

What have I been doing this whole time?

NOTHING MUCH LOOOOOOOL I CAN’T EVEN LIE AND PRETEND I MADE A LOT OF PROGRESS ON MANY PROJECTS

I AM SORRY OKAY

More seriously, if you follow me, you should know I released The Dragon Princess in March, for NaNoRenO.

For those who missed it, here is the plot:

On the night before her wedding, Princess Amaia of Steinna whispers a wish she thinks will be unheard. The moment she pronounces thse words, "I don't want to marry him", a dragon appears and, in a pure fairy tale fashion, kidnaps the Princess, trapping her in a tower. Surprisingly enough, the dragon, named Happho, is rather sympathetic and claims she wants to set Amaia free from her tyrannic fiancé, Azaiah, of whom the Princess of Steinna seems frightened... Can Amaia really trust her jailor? And in the end, who will save the Princess?

it is a deconstruction of a fairy tale to serve a feminist narrative. I don’t know if I would call the game “feminist” considering I’m a guy, and I’m not entitled enough to think I’m the one supposed to answer this question looool, but remember the most feminist thing you can do is supporting women! Otome Jam and Josei Jam recently finished, and although I didn’t participate this year, a lot of cool entries got released; and I helped with one of those, Chattercap’s My Husband is a Stranger, which I highly recommend! But play everyone's entries, most of otome games devs are women after all!

And you know, working on The Dragon Princess reminded me of something very important, that will change my trajectory for games…

There is a difference between working with love and working with passion. The truth is I love all my games, they are all my babies, I sing them lullabies and always make sure to pack a snack when they go to school with the other games who bully them

(my french audience rn reading this last paragraph)

But more seriously, it made me set things straight, and operate a clear distinction between loving an idea, and being passionate about it, since to me, they kind of were the same thing! Because, truth be told, I had SO MUCH PASSION working on The Dragon Princess, passion I hadn’t experienced to a similar degree since High School Lolita! So, it made me realise something important… this passion is what I want to drive me. It will have consequences on the game I make, and the way I make them: the previous years were very formative, as I learnt to use Ren’Py in a more diversified way to make my coding part of the creative process, and now, I need to apply what I learnt the way I did for The Dragon Princess. That doesn’t mean I cancel my projects, but my pace will be slower, and I won’t necessarily run after jams (except for NaNoRenO and O2A2, because I adore them).

So now, let’s talk about what you can expect from me in a more or less near future!

What to expect in the more or less near future

Excellent question! First of all, after a hiatus, I have resumed work on Waterlily on the Froth! A lot of things changed regarding its development, and I’ll detail it in its own devlog.

The Blue Skies of Milan

So, this year, I’m participating in O2A2, and I’m making a fangame of the anime Romeo’s Blue Skies, focusing on a moment the main character, Romeo, and his best friend and love of his life Alfredo spend together on the roofs of Milan, from Alfredo’s perspective.

For those who don’t know the anime, first of all, GO WATCH IT, IT’S AN UNDERRATED MASTERPIECE, but also, this is basically how I would summarise the plot:

Romeo, an eleven year-old boy, sells himself to a child trafficker to get enough money to cure his father’s illness. The preteen is now doomed to become a chimney sweep in Milan for six months. On his way, he meets Alfredo, a charismatic twelve year-old boy with whom Romeo will form an unexpected yet immediate bond of everlasting friendship, through times of happiness and hardship…

So yeah, I can’t emphasise how the summary DOESN’T REFLECT HOW AMAZING THE ANIME IS, really, the last time I had a similar experience with a piece of media was when I reread Racine’s Phaedra when I was 16, and I started a French literature master’s degree because of this play loool, like, sincerely, go watch it because 1) my game will contain spoilers since it’s going to be bittersweet 2) even if you don’t play my game because you’re acephobic or something (because of course that’s the only reason you’d not play one of my games), the anime is worth your time.

(concept art i drew for the game; Alfredo on the left, Romeo on the right)

GERI: My First Love

Another project you can certainly look forward to soon is a game for Yaoi Jam (the goal is to release a demo, but I can’t guarantee it), a literary adaptation of a forgotten French novel from the 19th century, now known as Geri’s Secret (an English translation exists, but I’m not sure you can easily find it; even the French edition was difficult to find lol), but that’s not the name the author, Louis Beysson, gave to his work. The first edition of the story was entitled Geri, or a First Love, and the second was renamed Geri, or a Platonic Love (despite the love between Geri and the main character not being platonic). The game will be named GERI: My First Love, as I don’t think the theme of the secret highlighted by the 2014 edition is that important in the story. For a summary of the plot:

Sixteen year-old Victor got sent by his father to an old monastery converted into a school. There he finds nothing but loneliness. But this all changes when he meets Geri, a frail fifteen year-old boy kept in the school tower. The two boys quickly experience intense love for each other… So what would happen if they ever were separated?

So far, the game is mostly in its writing stages, but if you need pictures, here is the concept art I drew a few months ago for Geri:

The idea is to put my twist on the 80s shoujo art style, so I hope I manage to emulate it satisfyingly in the game.

Writing this game is highly pleasant since it mostly consists in readapting the EXCELLENT prose of the original novel, in a fashion similar to what I did for The Daughters of the Sun.

Also, I commissioned my good friend Elduator to make a custom GUI for it and to program it, so that I can save time and focus on the art, the writing and coding everything that isn’t GUI-related! It shouldn’t be too difficult as the game is a kinetic novel! And I’m very excited to adapt the novel because I really adored it, and it is actually the first piece of French literature centred around an explicit homosexual romance! So quite relevant to in terms of LGBTQ+ history!!

A… yandere game?????

Yes, you read it right, me, making a yandere game, we’re officially in the worst timeline

So, this one is for the future, but I can’t tell you when it will get released. But basically, yes, I’m making an actual yandere game which isn’t shitpost loool.

Basically, you see those games where you’re trapped in an apartment, and you have to trick your yandere girlfriend into leaving? It has inspired the project. If you want a summary of this project (its development title is I Will Be Your Only Sky, but it might evolve, as I’m not sure it’s SEO-friendly):

When you wake up, you have a strange feeling: everything seems uncanny, from your apartment to your boyfriend, Cosmo, with whom you have lived for the last two years. And this gut feeling gets confirmed when your usually so chill partner refuses to let you leave your apartment. Will you find what is going on? And more importantly, will you be able to get out?

So, if the other projects mentioned here are kinetic, this one is not only a VN, but also a point and click, as you investigate your apartment to try to piece everything together. I can’t really mention the main feature as I want it to be a surprise, but I’m excited about it! So far, I’m conceptualising the details of it, but the gist of the plot is already decided, the endings too, although I'd like to rework them more, and the sprite I commissioned for Cosmo is ready! For a quick sneak-peek…

(art by Teale)

When I saw Teale’s art style, I found it perfect for the game I had in mind, since it’s obviously mystery and horror! And Cosmo looks gorgeous!! If you guys know me, you know I love making art for my games, as it helps me have control over the artistic direction, but here, Teale was really a perfect match, so I had to give in!! And the least I can say is RAWR BARK HELLO SIR

(this is what my brain orders me whenever I contemplate Cosmo’s sprite)

and in case you’re not convinced LOOK AT HIS GLORIOUS HANDS DON’T YOU WANT TO HOLD THEM (or i guess do more unholy things with them, but gosh, stop being acephobic, that’s embarrassing, pride month just ended, at least wait a week!!!!!!)

More seriously, I hope Cosmo is interesting! Ultimately, writing an actual compelling yandere character makes me rather anxious, as I usually write green flag love interests! I guess something, however, that makes me more confident, is Cosmo’s motivations, and also the fact the game isn’t truly a romance game, it really is a mystery/horror one.

And that’s a wrap for this edition of the Chim issues! Any final word Kawaii-chan?

Thanks a lot for reading me! And remember to all be like Touga: