Paradise That Never Was [WIP]

About:

This is an alpha build WIP. I do not recommend anyone to play the current version (v0.1), because it's extremely unfinished and I want to update it during the SuNoFes jam (which ends by September 2025). 

- The story cuts off abruptly. The rest had to be organised.

- The visuals are placeholders. I haven't coded any expression changes because the sprite art needs to be fixed and this was the most presentable pose.

'Paradise That Never Was' is a short side story, otome fandisk style, from a larger visual novel project that does not exist. 

This VN was made for the otome / josei 2025 jam, but it started out as an O2A2 jam idea that is brought to a bigger scope. In the end it is faithful to the minimal presentation and experimental narrative structure. It's a mix of 'out of rhythm as a part-time solo dev', 'not feeling it, I'm not submitting anything' and a lot of last-minute overhauls. It's not sticking to the vision of what I wanted to make, but I saw it as an opportunity for dev practice and getting certain things out of the way.

The story is set in a post-apocalyptical America, several decades after God decided to destroy earth but The Apocalypse was intercepted by the Fallen. The main lore and world-building were developed in early 2024: it has a light-hearted goofy tone (with a dash of horror because I love Biblical angels) that is extremely unrealistic, given how human civilization is barely affected. It's that kind of peaceful boring slice-of-life where nothing happens. In the end I settled on that I won't write stories in this VN universe anymore, because it's uncomfortable with the current events in Los Angeles and U.S., to me it's messed up how real life is significantly more horrible than some fictional depiction that isn't even a utopia.

This VN was a buffer to help me brainstorm and flesh out some plot logistics for the main VN and it's a bit ironic that I cancel it right after I have it figured out. 

Features:

- Word count: TBD (v0.1 has about 500 words)

- Kinetic VN

- MC: Female main character, name not shown for stylistic reasons, no visible character art. Had a sheltered celibate upbringing, possibly autistic. Kuudere personality. (The writing in this VN is relatively genderneutral about the MC, pronouns are not mentioned)

- LI: Only one male pan love interest (story is written from the POV of what MC knows about him). Somewhat subdued Genki personality.

- Straight relationship between characters somewhere on the LGBTQIA+ spectrum.

Content warnings:

- Early relationship anxieties, asexual (MC) - allosexual (LI)

- MC holds conservative Christian views (fictional subreligion) and unhealthy habits associated with it. The story does not feature any religious political statements about what is considered a sin.

- Photosensitivity warning: Contains multiple moving parts on screen 

Credits & Attribution:

Art, Writing and Coding: Gaming Variety Potato

Assets used:

(Links to specific asset will be added later)

Music:

Stevia Sphere (feat Kissonance for one track): 

https://steviasphere.bandcamp.com/

SFX:

DCLV (Freesound): 

https://freesound.org/people/DCLV/

Ying_Yang_Jake007 (Freesound): 

https://freesound.org/people/Yin_Yang_Jake007/sounds/411881/

Felix Blume (Freesound): 

https://freesound.org/people/felix.blume/

Code:

CuteShadow:

Subtitles Textbox in Ren'Py:  

https://cuteshadow.itch.io/subtitles-textbox-in-renpy

Stella @ MakeVisualNovels: 

RenPy shader pack: 

https://makevisualnovels.itch.io/make-visual-novels-rspv1

Art:

Title screen art contains photobashed parts from the following Pexels accounts: RDNE Stock project, Audrius Strikaitis, Soly Moses