#deadnettle creek

[janewilsonrva]

A Small World

Richmond, Virginia (USA)

Photo from March 25, 2023.

Like Red/Purple Deadnettle and Henbit Deadnettle, Ground Ivy (Glechoma hederacea) is a member of the Mint family of plants. Europeans used it medicinally and brought it with them to other continents. Although it's considered to be an invasive non-native in many places, its small purple flowers and scalloped leaves form lovely patches along the shady banks of the creek.

[azaraih]

Just a couple hours before the itch.io deadline, the demo is complete! Please check it out, we had a great time working on it and hope you will like it. https://azaraih.itch.io/deadnettle-creek-demo This is the first game I've worked on that has been released publicly so I would love to hear any feedback you have! It was a lot of work but I'm excited to have something completed and out there for people to try. I'm hoping to continue working on the full game, but first I'll take a break to catch up on life things (and play some other people's Nano games). :]

[diversegaminglists]

It’s Non-Binary Peoples Day so let’s take a moment to celebrate some of the Non-Binary characters in video games!

Bloodhound from Apex Legends!

Bolt from Crypt of the Necrodancer!

Maez from Deadnettle Creek! - Demo here.

Kris from Delatrune!

Testament from the Guilty Gear franchise!

Leo from Tekken!

Alex Cyprin from the Astoria games!

Ravi Patel from Catacomb Prince!

TOMCAT from 2064: Read Only Memories!

Keo Venzee from Star Wars: Squadrons!

[lavieenprose]

Prone As i Am by Bree

goodbye kisses 

 your goodbye kisses are among the best ive had. you say its cus they are see you later kisses. i answer i surely will.

you are my taste of true country. your loud muffler accelerates me. youre so wrong. cant get wronger. purple deadnettle sprawls the way to the red barn. we cant go on like this, i say-

you say we just need to do it more, and longer.

foreshadows in the fore of winter brown trees and orange birds like laser pointsyou give an awfully good presentation.just your forearm is exciting. i dont know yet you would hold itagainst my cheek while screaming vile things- my heart a checkeredflag to signal the end of a race. in the damp, once-burnt grassi inhale you deeply. you pointto a coyote pastures over,running with pleasure through star chickweed, presumably. and even though it is early, it is so dark, and evenly, we neither of us make shadows.

just the tips are yellow of

gold grasses and bronze sedge combine in the advent of antlers. trees markedly bare, just the tips are yellow of frame the creek a county over from mine.

clouds striate the sky like vinyl. hawks cry in the grooves, taking advantage of warm shafts.

the last time i saw you before the women pulled your oxygen tubes firm young red maples clinked together like red stemware outside the lodge where we danced to Neil Young, even though it embarrassed us.

i stand alone, not even the sound of a far-off car or cow, and i hear you quip,

    i mean the deal wasnt     supposed to go down     that way

as a shy hen plants her face in the crook of a pussywillow, filling me with all of your grace.

[azaraih]

Here’s a few screenshots! I did a lot of work on the UI, created another background, and got all of Maez’s expressions working (still working on Lupita). Still a lot left to do on the next scene since it’s going to be a bit more complicated, but the first scene is close to being finished.

[azaraih]

It’s April! And the game is not 100% done, but it’s very close! I’ll be working on finishing it up in the next day or two and will for sure make it in time to meet the deadline on the itch.io jam page.

The main thing left to do is more sprites, since I decided to have a couple different background images where the sprites are interacting with the actual environment (like this screenshot). So that requires separate sprites for each location for each character. Everything I’ve completed is looking good though, and I”m very excited to show everyone how it turned out! Almost there!

[azaraih]

Here’s an updated version of the screenshot I posted last time, since I like how the colors turned out! somonastic is going to help out with finishing up the remaining 2 backgrounds so I can focus on the other stuff. So my goal is to finish the writing and editing today and get pretty far on the sprites and effects.

[azaraih]

Just wanted to give a quick update since we’re getting close to the end of Nanoreno! I’ve been working hard on the second half of the intro and have a lot of things partway finished (like this bg of Maez’s kitchen). The writing for the second scene is probably 80% done and all the backgrounds have their layouts and sketches completed. Next after that will be doing more sprites and effects, and I’ll see if I can fit in some time to work on adding sound. A lot left to do, but hopefully I can finish in time!

[azaraih]

Another background done! I also worked on more sprite expressions so I’m almost completely done with the first part of the intro. Now I’m working on the second part where Dedalos first appears, and it’s going to be a bit complicated so I’m going to focus hard on making it as polished as possible so it has more impact. So I won’t worry about starting chapter 1, I’ll just try to have a short but really good intro.

[azaraih]

So far today I worked on the main menu design for the game! When you hover on the buttons they turn green and a different leaf appears for each one. It’s nice to not have the default UI in there anymore, it makes it feel like I’m making some progress. The one thing I’m not sure about is that I like having some simple animation on the main menu, like part of the background being a scrolling pattern or something, but I couldn’t think of what would make sense for this one. I’ll add it in later if I think of something that fits.

[azaraih]

Another update on NaNoRenO: I did some more writing and art, including finally making a logo! So here’s a little bit of a preview of what Dedalos looks like. Also now that it’s the weekend, I’ll have a lot more time to work on the game. I’m hoping to get a lot of the writing done, and then work on some background and real sprite art. More updates soon!

[azaraih]

Made some progress on NaNoRenO! Character designs and almost all the background image designs are done, I’ve created the Ren’Py project and started adding a few things in, and I worked on these two character sprites. So here’s Maez and Lupita. Not sure if these are 100% done yet but I wanted to get some art out there.

[azaraih]

Deadnettle Creek

Hey! This month I’m going to be working on a Visual Novel project called Deadnettle Creek for NaNoRenO. My #1 priority is to finish something and put it out there for people to play, so I’m going to focus on completing a demo that includes the game’s intro. If there’s time left after that I’ll keep adding more to it. Here’s a little bit about the project, and I’ll post updates as I make progress.

Summary

Maez has an ordinary life, spending their days in a cubicle doing data entry and sharing lunch breaks with their college friend turned coworker, Lupita. When Lupita is unexpectedly laid off, the two of them take a walk through Deadnettle Creek, one of the few spaces left in their town that isn’t paved over with concrete. Walking along the dried up creek bed, they stumble into a strange hollow and accidentally release a strange snake creature. The snake turns out to be an ancient nature spirit who possesses Maez. During the centuries the spirit spent sealed up, the destruction of nature in the area left it weakened. Since it can’t leave Maez’s body until it regains its powers, they have to work to bring nature back to the town or be stuck together forever.

Characters

Maez - The protagonist. Had a normal life before being possessed by a nature spirit. Works a megacorp office job, lives in a tiny studio apartment, hasn’t done anything for the environment since planting a tree in second grade. Nonbinary, goes by their last name.

Lupita - Maez’s longtime friend and now ex-coworker. Never liked working for a megacorp, after being laid off is looking for a new job where she can help her local community. Teams up with Maez to bring nature back, after getting over how weird the situation is.

Dedalos - An ancient nature spirit that takes the form of a snake. Mischievous, impulsive, glad not to be stuck in a hollow anymore. Ready to take the town back from the humans, but annoyed it has to depend on humans to do it. Confused about how different modern life is compared to centuries ago.

Team

Art - azaraih & somonastic Story - azaraih & somonastic Writing - azaraih Editing - somonastic Programming - azaraih Music - probably creative commons

[azaraih]

Hey! I’m Azaraih and I’m going to attempt to make a full game for NaNoRenO this year! Last year I made a demo for Deadnettle Creek and had a fun time working on it, so hopefully I can use what I learned and actually finish a full story (we’ll see how it goes).

Summary

Jules is a successful spaceship engineer and entrepreneur. Even before graduating from Andromeda Space Academy, he had sold his startup company to intergalactic megacorp Heliacron for 6.5 million credits. He has almost everything he thought would make him happy: plenty of money, his dream job, and his own home with a fully equipped workshop. Unfortunately, he also has horrible anxiety and spends most of his free time working or hanging out with his cat.

When a client invites him to a party at a luxe hotel, Jules figures it’s a good opportunity to put himself out there and prove he’s over his ex-boyfriend. But talking to people is hard, especially when some jerk you barely know notices you struggling and decides to “help.” Will Jules make it through the evening and make a connection with someone? Or will anxiety drive him to retire to his hotel room early and binge overpriced minibar snacks in bed?

Characters

Julian Yun (Jules) - The protagonist. Huge spaceship nerd, way out of practice at romance stuff, trying his best.

Minerva Qaderi - The client. Mysteriously wealthy, throws the fanciest parties, remembers everyone.

Altais Dragomirov (Drago) - The jerk. Cyborg with a 90% cybernetic brain, clearly has some kind of shady past, works for Minerva.

Vega - A party guest. Seems nice and hopefully easy to talk to.

Federico - A party guest. A classy-looking guy hanging out at the bar.

Idizia - A party guest. Something about him seems familiar.

[Possibly 1 or 2 other characters if I have extra time]

Team

Art - azaraih Writing - azaraih Editing - somonastic Programming - azaraih Music - creative commons

Development Notes

Hopefully people will enjoy a game about having anxiety in space! I’m planning to try out some new things this year, like including more meaningful choices, multiple endings, and a new game mechanic I’ll talk about later once I have it figured out more. My biggest concern for this project is just time management, since I’ll be doing a lot myself and I work full time, but I’ll do my best to pull this off. Thanks for reading, and good luck to everyone working on NaNo this year!