AQUMARINE: DOCTOR'S ORDER

This is a soft-launch post about me starting work on my visual novel but also this will be a general monthly update blog post since I somehow almost forgot about this blog LOL.

I've started writing a visual novel about my OC universe, Aquamarine! If you know me at all you probably have seen bits about my OCs, I really love them and I've been working on them for about a year now. Aquamarine isn't necessarily the most narrative-driven story, I moreso have them to explore character dynamics and draw them for fun, but I've been thinking about making a short visual novel about them for a while now.

The VN is going to be called "Aquamarine: Doctor's Order", (or just Doctor's Order... AquaVN...) (subject to change) and it serves to introduce people to my OCs as well as make something with my characters. It's called Doctor's Order because the protag/narrator is Dr Lou Ambrose. She has appointments with the employees at Aquamarine, which will let the readers get to know everyone. It's nothing super serious, just fun!!

(Pictured: some starting screen concept art I made a few months ago. The title was "interview with the doctor" .... like the movie/show LOL)

So far I've written the first appointment (out of 4) and I've started to think about sprites. Writing takes priority of course, there's no 'novel' without it, but I haven't drawn my OCs as much lately because *cough*DRA*cough* so I wanted to practice again.

(Pictured: here's some sprite sketches I've done so far. Why is Nina half cut off? I drew her as a doodle but she ended up being a good size for sprites so she's there for scale...) (Drawing these also made me realize I won't be able to have height-accurate sprite scaling :,( The tallest characters would get cut off at the top/Dolly is too short next to them.)

This year I've played a few indie VNs that I really really enjoy and it's just super inspiring, so why not try to make my own? This includes things like the Danganronpa Another duology (which has completely taken over my life..), Of the Devil and Soul of Sovreignty. I highly recommend all of these titles! OTD and SOS are both currently in development, but have a few chapters available to play and have free demos to play! OTD episode 2 comes out next month and I'm sooo excited!

It might seem a bit odd, but I'm probably just going to privately release the VN (hoping I do finish it at some point!) between oomfs and friends because Aquamarine is just so personal to me that the thought of too many strangers seeing them makes me feel uneasy... Maybe if I feel more confident later on I'll do a public release. It's not like I have many followers in the first place lol, but still.

Any future VN updates will go on my Aquamarine blog (which is still a work in progress, lol. Still need to draw some assets...)

Okay I'm losing steam here now so I'm going to ramble briefly about drawing.. You can probably tell but I have a lot of trouble drawing heads/keeping things proportionate so I've been trying really hard to practice it better... I think I've gotten a bit better. I've also been practicing lineart because I get really frustrated doing it so I'm keeping things simple with a pixelated no-size-pressure brush.

Here's a Ranka I drew the other day! I got a bit lazy but it's still a cute pic. I try to draw her every year (I need to draw Sheryl too...) since she's my namesake (rankaroid)!

Final note: Final Fantasy XIV is back on the table. I resubbed a month before 7.4 patch release date to catch up on MSQ + etc thinking that I wouldn't really care and play like 1 hour per week ........................... I was really wrong. It's like I never took a break. I can't wait for arcadion final tier + 8.0 build up?! It looks like 7.4 is Krile-centric HEHEHEHE. Are we ready for 8.0 to be Krile-G'raha-Y'shtola? (cope)

Okay that's all I have really. Life's been OK. Nothing crazy has happened... I guess the craziest thing is that I only have 1 more monthly post to make this year. 2025 is almost over... I'll be making a 2025 faves / year retrospective next month for sure.

Thanks for reading >_o