ive worked so hard to curate a vibe and its all abt to come crashing down.

ok hello!
i wanted to start keeping a proper record of development beyond... cryptic progress screenshots and jokes without any context whatsoever. theyre rly funny btw. youll understand when ur older. but, i think it would be better to just give... some kind of introduction before jumping right in. ideally i want to make video updates too, but for now text is fine. i’d rather put that effort into the game!

right, so...

this is my first game. its definitely spiralled out of control, but i’m kind of a chronic overachiever. tbh given the circumstances, i think its going ok so far. i have this little website to sort of spark interest, but i’m not very good about updating it... or finishing pages... or explaining anything clearly. u have to understand. its abt the vibes,

i'm actually kind of just not good at css in general. sorry if this is rly busted on ur monitor.... i tried.... a lot harder than i should have tbh. probably made it worse.

i’m hoping to make a better plot summary page later, but for now...

i’ve found it difficult to talk about the characters and narrative in any meaningful capacity without like, spoiling it. you’ll have to forgive some spoilers- especially regarding sana, since i guess he counts- but i’ve been pretty good about keeping the really big stuff secret. though, i feel like if you’re reading all these in-depth notes, that’s probably not too much of a concern.

:: genre

well its a mecha psychological body horror scifi pseudo-mono-paranormal-romance jrpg-style turn-based balatro-like lynchian eroguro kinetic visual novel. obviously.

im pioneering a genre i think. for sure. theres a mainstream audience for this one.

i honestly dont rly know whats going on anymore.

:: inspiration

to say nier replicant & automata is a bit lazy, since... most things i write and create are. obviously still is evangelion, signalis, devilman crybaby...

narratively and thematically, kagerou project. i grew up with it, and it ends up showing itself everywhere. perfect blue (best movie ever made btw), persona 3, silent hill 2, ai the somnium files. blame. ghost in the shell, yume nikki. serial experiments lain, madoka magica.

i really like absurdist and surrealist literature, and my hope is always to hit a lynchian tone with writing... i’m super inspired by the writing in pathologic, i think it lands that ‘said-but-unsaid’, forcing the reader between the (blurry and nonsensical) lines, etc., vibe perfectly.

maybe it’s just that i grew up with it, but i love the look of old vector art, y2k technology. ok and thats NOT just because its trending. everyone used to be so mean to me about still gassing up iPod commercials....
now its all over pop culture... pah. anyway. old vocaloid song mvs, all the arrows and simple icons... i keep trying to imitate it, and getting lost in my own artistic habits to overcomplicate things.
maybe not the most compatible aesthetics, but if i can at least create something that looks like old ps2 box art, i’ll be happy.

i think i’m just listing things i like at this point... though, i guess that’s sort of all inspiration is. i think the beautiful thing about creation is how all the things someone loves come together as a new tapestry of something unique, and their own... (or at least that’s what i tell myself when i start to feel like i’m plagiarizing something)

i have a lot of “inspiration” on a list of media to check out- things that i think are totally up the project alley and would probably kickstart a lot of ideas for me. but they tend to be quite long... i wish i had more free time. i have so many movies on there, but i’d always rather spend my evenings working on whatever I can before I have to go back to the real world... i’m sure when i finally find a moment for inland empire, i’ll end up revising a lot of this.
i have to confess ive actually also never played metal gear solid. i know. i’m sorry. i’m trying to be better.

it did start as a visual novel! start as. perhaps i should have kept things simple... or perhaps i simply can’t be contained...

i have... five or six, ish, endings planned? i cut them down. honestly, all these extra things being added are symptomatic of me being indecisive, not delusions of grandeur. should it end like this... or maybe like this... should carmine say this or that... why make such difficult choices when both can be true ♡....

my imagination tends to get ahead of me. maybe because the story is so, well, bizarre? its fun to think of all the wild turns it can take... vetting story paths has been really hard. maybe it would be better to explain the conceptual narrative first.

:: ummm....

you play as carmine emiliano, but not really. at most, you have some vague authority over carmine emiliano. it’s more like... you’re in the passenger seat, right. and you know the right way to go, so you’re giving him directions. eyes on the road, boy. okay, except he keeps taking wrong turns. and at first you’re like yea i guess it was a confusing rotary. that's nbd, we can adjust. but then you realize he’s actually doing it on purpose to spite you. because he hates you. and actually he’s going 250mph and could crash the car at any second. so you go to try and jump out, but he locked all the doors and he’s taking you with him. and also it might be kind of your fault for pushing him to this point.

does that sound fun.

i think so.

:: my opp

there are only three things you need to know about carmine.
he:
1. does not know what time it is
2. loves punching drywall
3. has not been chill about anything ever and is actually kind of a little freak about most things in life.

okay, yay! so excited to be locked into this journey with him! ♡

actually, i think i wrote a more formal summary of sorts somewhere a while ago. let’s see...

The hyperfuturistic city of Soburne sees mechs and machinery used for sensationalized entertainment. Streetfighter Carmine Emiliano seeks to transcend his body and find untold fortune in the colosseum-like ranks of battle division Soulbound. With the support of his adoptive family and their somewhat-questionable riches, Carmine is outfitted with a mech of his own to take the stage, dubbed Hegemona.

In order to control his Arbiter, Carmine must diffuse soul from his body, transferring his consciousness into the “core” of the mech. Upon his first attempt, Carmine is nearly killed. In his siblings' “DIY” attempt at construction, they unknowingly recycled parts of a machine involved in decades-old tragedy. Rather than a clean slate, Carmine finds himself sent into the neurological web of the pilot previously killed within- who he later learns to be a man named Sana.

Rather than turn back, Carmine persists through the absurdity of it all. Sana is deemed his “co-pilot”, and the two are forced into a state of soul::identity fusion in order to effectively control Hegemona. Sana, having been sealed within and starved of human connection for decades, latches onto Carmine quick.

The events that follow send Carmine’s pre-existing dissociative disorder into full swing. He holds a number of extreme beliefs regarding his control of reality, and as the narrative further abstracts, the lines between objective truth and his imagination spiral wildly out of control.

Carmine’s brief SoulBound career sees constant fusion, overlap, and rearrangement of his soul with Sana’s. During this period, he falls head over heels for Sana, yet loses his grip on the line between the two of them. The choices made by the player direct his obsession and infatuation into a variety of twisted manifestations, such as transhumanist evolution, psychological imprisonment, sacrificial exchange of life, dissolution into cult-like serenity, and more.

had enough of stories where the computer is omniscient and evil and torments you? ‘dysiata’ bravely dares to let u torment the machine back. and also kiss it a lil.

Unstable psychology further deteriorates as Carmine tries over, over, and over again to find a better outcome. Though none are particularly good, some are certainly far worse than others. Objectively, this is a sick tragedy: both Carmine and Sana were doomed from the moment they met, yet still refuse every chance to escape their fates.

yeah, something like that ♡
and also there’s a lot of soul-fused giant robot wrestling.

right, so, with all that in mind...

the story follows carmine over the course of seven wild-wacky-silly days, give or take. chapters accompany him through his day, into the core of his mech- to arms- and finally through pseudo-psychological “downtime” sequences. each sleepless night grants him a variety of ways to attempt to process and reset himself, with... mixed success.

rather than a large body of sprites and backgrounds, the program itself routinely rearranges and shifts. changes in layout and structure reflect changes in reality alongside Carmine’s state of mind and perception of the world. these elements frequently animate to support both these ideas and the writing itself, coming together for a more immersive exploration / experience.

carmine’s forays into battle, however, shift into turn-based combat. each chapter hosts a chain of rapid-paced encounters blended with further dialogue and narrative development. with only two ‘party members’, ideal strategies will flip between the two and stack up modifiers to deal heavy blows. most of the core mechanics are more or less what you’d expect from a jrpg, but, since the two occupy one body... certain aspects may deviate from their traditional function. flip status effects back and forth between them, suppress one to strengthen the other, rewind time, etc. use even their synchronization as a resource- manipulate and control the status of their coexistence to time and execute abilities to their full potential. certain passive effects carry over between encounters, allowing for extended planning and setup of elaborate plays.

proper combat is a newer addition, and serves as a tool for the narrative rather than stealing its focus. instead of spending external time training, improving stats, and grinding to increase power, chapter stages are kept novel and interesting through unique rulesets that reflect the events of the story. abilities are unlocked over the course of the narrative, some influenced by choices, and others as rewards for a full experience.

read my writing boy. don’t u dare hit that skip button. i’ll give carmine like, a nuke or something if u do. idk.

i’ve been jokingly comparing it to balatro, but its honestly not that far off. where’s my sana joker. there’s a two pair joke in here somewhere. either way, structurally, i think best explained with fire emblem games- a story chapter to read, and then an extended fight sequence. i’ve never designed anything on this scale, but i’m really enjoying it so far! i hope it ends up being fun... it’ll end up being totally broken for sure, but hopefully in a fun way. when the time comes to playtest.... keep ur eyes peeled....

i think this is getting long enough as is, but i hope that that all serves as a satisfactory introduction to my little game! i’ve done so much work, yet i still have an unbelievable ways to go... this solodev thing is no joke T_T

my hope is to be able to publish the first chapter or two as a demo this year, but even that is quite a ways off... still, i want to share what i’ve created and be able to talk to others about it! unfortunately, for now, this will have to do. there’s a lot i want to add to this lil site too to help make it more interactive than me blabbing at the wall, but i’ve been trying to be good abt a healthy balance between time spent on external stuff like this, and time spent Actually Making The Game.

should i quit my masters program to focus on making my shitty vn. maybe.

anyway, i hope that you’ll enjoy following along, and i can’t wait to see where things develop and end up! i love my characters and my world, and i hope that others may come to love them too. please look forward to it :)