Zeta Wolf Chronicles - [Visual Novel][BxG][Romance][Slice of Life][School Life]

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Features

•  Relive a slice of life romance [BxG] based on a true story!
• Features locale inspired by an actual high school
• Quiz based minigames that test your knowledge and mettle of social interactions and more!
• Character arcs that take you through the ages of the main character (18-30)
• Bust-Style GUI that allows you to see the reactions of the protagonist
• Several Endings based on gameplay choices (True route is far from obvious)
• Support after release with DLC arcs that expand the story

Future Goals

• Release a Demo [WIP]
• Spanish Translation
• Kickstarter to gauge support and add features/aid development
• Otome Route - Play as Siona and romance several guys [pending Kickstarter]

Staff

• ZanthosAC [Lead Dev/Writer/Producer/Programming]
• ThaiChau Studio [Art/Sprites/CG/Backgrounds]
• Red Robotix [Music]
• sssilveth [Chibi Artwork]
• Rachi Sills [Rayen VA]
• Lauren Mayfield [Siona VA]

Questions and Answers

Are we looking for staff members? - Possibly. We have most positions filled right now. However, we might be in need of proofreaders, gametesters and a writer in the future. Any open positions for voice acting will be listed on Casting Call Club. 

Is the demo out and is there a ETA? - No date right now. Work is proceeding slowly, but gradually. We hope to release the demo when it is done, which will hopefully be sometime in the future. Best guess is late 2019.

Will there be a Kickstarter? 

Yes, once the demo is completed, there will be a Kickstarter. We have had ideas swirling around our heads for awhile now regarding the campaign and some of the tiers. One of which will be a goal for an otome based route for Siona. 

Any questions or comments about this game are appreciated! 

Hey everyone, we decided to post an itch.io devlog to provide a little more insight over using twitter. Zeta Wolf Chronicles has been in development since March 2018, and we are steadily churning toward a completed demo! The demo has plans to showcase the beginning of the game, with 7-8 CGS and 5 custom music tracks. Length will be about 2-4 hours long. There will also be partial voice acting in the demo. As far as demos go, it will be quite meaty and will be definitely worth the wait. Here's some additional notes regarding the demo.

• The demo has a NG+ of sorts where you can access Arctia's Route. 
• There will be an interesting segment of choices regarding Siona and Rayen's dreams. Through these events, you will be able to see previously unseen sides to Siona. 
• Unfortunately, Rika and her arc will be left out of the demo. Due to the storytelling of the game, the story of each heroine is presented in successive "arcs" and you must "pass through" one to get to the next, and so on. Naturally, due to being a visual novel, your choices will effect the outcomes and routes you end up on. 
• Itch.io will be the first place (for now) to grab the demo. 

Development updates:

• Working with Red Robotix on the first track of the game. It is roughly 90% completed. The title of the track is "A Zeta Wolf's Journey". This will be the main menu/options menu music. The title screen CG accompanying the track will depict the cast in the wilderness surrounding a campfire. Specifically, the girls will be encircling the campfire, with Rayen and Arctia off to the side in the distance. The imagery is somewhat symbolic with the theme of the game drawing heavy inspiration from wolves relationships with each other.  The plan is to introduce some small animation to the title screen. As far as the mood of the track goes, it's rather solemn, invoking a general feeling of wilderness and embarking on a journey. This is a slight departure from the other tracks in the game since the title setting is leagues apart from school and everyday life. 
• Other tracks in the demo will draw upon jazz/rhythmic sounds. Sounds that evoke "seduction" will be a strong theme in some tracks, as well as desperation and longing. 
• Our Chibi Artist has finished Siona's Chibi. While I am fairly impressed with it, I feel like Rayen's sprite could use some revisions. 
• There are plans for an alternate costume for Arctia. She will wear a mysterious white cloak which obscures her hybrid wolf-like features. 
• Siona will have alternate costumes as well, to correspond with two major events in the demo. 
• Concepts for the key-visual (mainly for media/advertising purposes) are in place. The idea is to have the cast in various directional poses, and Rayen with a letter in hand, paying homage to a major event in the game. Arctia will be cloaked in her alternate costume, for a hint of mysteriousness. The background will consist of wilderness/pine trees and perhaps an evening sunset, in some sort of violet shade. 
• There has been a debate whether Arctia should have a transparent left eye (from her perspective) or not. I believe her hair bang should fully conceal her eye so this change will probably be made to her sprite and in the artwork. 

Script is 75% Complete! 

75% done on writing. This means the basic foundations have been completed including dialogue scenes. The demo will have a simplified route system, having only a normal route and new game+ route. As thus, it is recommended to play through the game twice. 

Script is at over 15k words for the demo so far. This includes normal and ng+ route but it does not include flavor text such and glossary and bios. It's expected to run over 20k in the demo as outlined. There are just a few more scenes to finalize and the writing for the demo will be 100% complete. 

Unfortunately, even though the writing is nearly done, art assets are far from finished. This will be the largest delay in getting the demo out the door. I would put a rough estimate of summer of 2020 for initial demo release. Things could easily be pushed back, likely for art.

We will be experimenting with real time outfit selections and an inventory for collecting them. This is something I truly hope will be implemented. 

Demo will amount to 2-4 hours of playtime (assuming +-200 words per minute reading time). 

Things to look forward to in the full game:
Siona's Extended Route
Rika's Route
New Character Route
"Arctia's" Route

Other goals depending on Kickstarter Success.
Otome Route as mentioned, is one of the goals. 

Music for the demo will include 6 to 7 custom tracks for the OST. Currently the main menu music is finished. A preview will be posted in the future.

Demo will be partially voiced. Expect "snippet" type quotes for dialogues. 

New Character will be officially revealed in late May/ Early June. No spoilers right now, but she (it's a female character) will play a heavy role with Arctia and Rayen in the dream world. She's only introduced in the demo and is not romancable.

Any questions or comments, are appreciated! Thanks everyone who followed us on twitter! 

Hello everyone. After some months, we finally have an update on our progress. (*sigh* early projections on progress-percentages were way off...)

The good news is that programming of the game has finally seen some significant progress. Due to the way things are organized, the script entered(programmed) in the game can vary from the script written in documents. Due to this estimation, roughly 23.15% of the demo script is programmed. This comes to 6250 out of 27000 words programmed. Programming in this sense means the structuring of the playable portion of the game. While this is mostly data entry, it also entails the layering of events/commands that translate to what you view/play. This number can fluctuate especially if the script comes to 30k words in the end, which it very likely could. 

There's some missing scenes to be written for the script as well as some final polish that could be implemented in the writing. That said, I'd put the writing at about 80% complete. The alternate route is WAY longer than the standard route, being more elaborate and drawn out, especially with more character dialogue. Even though programming has a long way to go, the standard route (demo-wise) is probably 50% completed. The way ZWC handles routes is that there will be 2 main routes, and a number of branches from there depending on your choices. The "branches" can open their own routes and so on. My plan for the "true" route is to be something players least expect and to defy typical VN conventions (sort of like how romance is handled from a boy->girl perspective over the whole game). Originally, the demo was suppose to only encompass the standard route (only about 13k words) but then I decided to get a little ambitious in the development process. This ended up being more work true, but it allowed me to brainstorm additional scenarios for the game and character interactions. 

ZWC at the onset was more of an introspective game, with only the protagonist and main love interest. It was aiming to be different by minimizing the MC's interaction's with other characters. You'll still experience this on the standard route, of course. On the alternate path, you'll meet Arctia and our new character, which shifts the tone/focus of the story dramatically. I wanted the first playthrough to be as emotionally gripping as possible with very little comedy elements. As described, the alternate path can only be accessed on a New game+ run (beat the game/demo once). 

Speaking of, our new character, Arctia's assistant, is almost ready to show off. Her sprite is pretty much 90% done, but I have debated on the proper 
color scheme for her. It's really aggravating in this sense, as I never really had this problem with the rest of the cast. Rayen/Siona follow color schemes appropriate for their high school as their defaults, and Arctia's just sort of worked with her wolf theme. Arctia's secondary costume will also borrow heavily from new girl's default, hence the dilemma I'm currently in. I wonder if light or darker colors will look better on them? Leaning toward dark, as that was the original design from the artist. 

Actually, in other news, the GUI and logo will be getting an overhaul by another talented artist. I'm hopeful that these elements turn out great. I was never happy with the original logo (made it myself) and it was always intended to be a placeholder. We'll see how things turn out.

If you've been following our twitter (@AniClashStudios), we've posted a few non-canon skits with the characters. Yes, there'll be a sort of popularity contest to vote for your favorite heroine/female character in the game. The choices will be Siona, Arctia, Rika and our latest character to be revealed. Speaking of new girl, she'll have 2 different (and interesting) sides to her personality that essentially makes her two characters in one. The winner of the poll will get an extra alternate costume! 

Speaking of costumes, I have done some testing for our costume-equipment system, and I believe I have laid the groundwork for things. In theory, you'll be able to switch any character's costume in real time (for the main girls atleast). By reaching various goals or achievements, you can earn various costumes. There will be a default switch (costume according to scene) or player controlled costume (which character "x" will be wearing such and such depending on what you choose). Due to this design decision, most characters will only have 1 pose. I'm not personally a fan of different poses, since I think the collectible aspect of costumes will enhance the gameplay of ZWC (where there is usually a barebones amount on basis of being a VN). 

Likely we'll have lots of little things to show off on our twitter, so stay tuned!

-Zanthos