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[TeeGee]

This is what my recently formalized team is up to these days. An atmospheric VN with a feminist angle, based on the classic fairytale of Cinderella. If you ever wished that Cinderella would take fate into her hands, find a way to retake her residence from the evil stepmother (possibly by poisoning her), and ditch the prince in favor of the handsome captain of the guard, it's a game for you .

We want Cinders to be a really pretty and moody game. We aren't using manga, as is usually done in this genre, but more of the golden age of illustration style. We're aiming for some high quality graphics with animated backgrounds, characters and special effects. We may release a small demo soon to see what people think. The final game is going to be commercial.

The project is under steady development and should be available soon for Mac and PC. We are putting lots of hope into this - it's pretty much the "be or not to be" of our indie studio.

Screenshots:
   


Developed by: MoaCube
Art by: Gracjana "Vinegar" Zielinska
Music by:  Rob Westwood


Links:
Website with more info
Our facebook

[agersant]

Excellent concept : check.
Gorgeous art : check.
Beutiful music : check.

There's not much more I can expect from an indie game. Let's hope it helps the studio take off !

PS : The music reminds me a bit of The Witcher's soundtrack.

[TeeGee]

Ha ha, I actually worked on The Witcher . There's no connection between the musicians though.

[Bod]

Ah, thank you!
I haven't heard any of The Witcher's music (shame on me) but I've heard it's good!

[TeeGee]

Yeah, the music was one of the stronger parts of that game. You can do a search on youtube - it's easy to find.

And two more screenies, showing the same location at day and night.





It's all animated with distorted reflections in the water, sunrays, glitter on the surface of the lake, moving flowers, fireflies, will o'wisps at night and whatnot.

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

the style between the title screen and the in-game screens seems different -- the title screen uses very few colors and is more abstract and stylized. not sure if it's mandatory to keep style consistent, but it was something that i noticed

anyway, looking forward to playing the finished version -- just try to make sure the plot is as great as the visuals (if needed, ask wynand for advice, any story he touches rules)

[TeeGee]

Well, yeah, menus and GUI are heavily stylized, while the game itself takes more realistic approach. It's not too uncommon and it works nicely I think. We would like the main menu to look and feel like a book cover.

We're working hard on the plot. There's a strong chance that we'll soon add an experienced writer to our team, as I may not be able to do everything on my own on time. As for Wynand, he's a great writer and all, for a while he even was to write the story for ArcMagi, but it took him months to even reply to emails, which left me with generally bad/lazy impression.

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

yeah, but to be fair i don't think it's laziness as much as busy-ness -- reading his facebook anyway, i get the impression that he just works really hard for his editing company, and doesn't have that much free time. but the same thing is true of ID and SD -- he wrote basically the entire story of ID in the last 3 weeks of development (but even so it was the most widely praised part of the game).

[TeeGee]

I can understand being busy, but nobody is so busy that they can't find few minutes to send an email. Even if that email is going to be: "Sorry, I'm busy, I'll reply later". Theoretically he's still writing the story for ArcMagi - he was still up for it in his last email and never said "no". He just didn't reply to my last email for around a year now .
Sorry, I know he's a talented writer, and I don't want to criticize anyone on a public forum (too much), but I can't help it - he just left a bad impression on me. I prefer to work with responsive and active people, who I can count on in any situation, and who I know will manage to keep deadlines if necessary.


And to stay on the topic of Cinders -- I just had an awesome bug in which one of the characters decided to hang herself  .

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

i tend to agree for my part (i always read and reply to emails quickly) but i do know people who claim to be too busy to even read emails (let alone respond to them). but yeah, i think it's a good idea to work with people who are more timely, as long as they are also good at what they do (i wouldn't want to sacrifice quality for timeliness, which is probably why SD is nearing the 4 years in production mark)

regarding VN's in general though, do you know if there's any overlap between the people who buy western-made VN's and those who play japanese-made ones? or are they usually separate audiences?

[TeeGee]

Agreed on quality. But if Cinders took 4 years to complete, I would starve 3 years before its release . I need both skill and reliability. Actually, reliability is also a mark of skill.

regarding VN's in general though, do you know if there's any overlap between the people who buy western-made VN's and those who play japanese-made ones? or are they usually separate audiences?

I'm not sure. I'm still new to the genre, and I'm not really interested too much in the classic anime VNs except Phoenix Wright. I think there's some overlap, but I also think most western VN fans don't know Japanese well enough to import Japanese-made games, and play the ones made by western makers.

At first I was afraid that the existing VN audience is so used to anime style, that they will reject anything different. But I posted Cinders on an anime VN centric forum, as well as sent a preview copy to Hanako, Amanda and Winterwolves, and they all loved it. So I guess there's some flexibility.

[TeeGee]

We uploaded three Cinders wallpapers to MoaCube's website, if anybody's interested.







Link

[jack_norton]

Wallpapers are a great idea
And also want to public wish good luck to you in making a VN. I do VN/Dating Sims since a few years and I personally enjoy it, though I understand it's not a kind of game that can appeal everyone 

[agersant]

Ha ha, I actually worked on The Witcher Cool. There's no connection between the musicians though.

Congratulations for working a on great successful project =)

I'm totally downloading the title screen wallpaper, thanks for making them !

[TeeGee]

We updated the Cinders page with two more recent screenshots:



I have already shown the lake here, but Madame Ghede on the cemetery (1st image) is completely new. Like it?

[TeeGee]

I know than visual novels aren't too popular on TIGS, but we haven't updated in a while, and I thought I should drop in the latest news, in case someone's interested.

We have uploaded a new video with a fragment of Cinders soundtrack to our YouTube. It also showcases one of the in-game locations in motion, in proper HD.

Link

If everything goes well, we should have pre-orders of Cinders available next week. Purchasers will get to play a preview build of the game right away. Here's more info: http://moacube.com/?p=523

Overall, it seems we're approaching the final stage of the development. Wish us luck .

[Zaphos]

in case someone's interested.

Definitely interested, this looks great

[Amanda Williams]

This is absolutely gorgeous. Wishing great things for you!

[TeeGee]

A big day for us! Cinders pre-orders and preview build are finally available!



Cinders Pre-Order

Pre-order costs $19.95, gives purchasers access to the preview build of the game right away, and allows them to affect the development by participating in our closed beta. We also published a small trailer for the game. It's featured in the announcement on our website, but here's a direct link:



Let us know what you think .

[TeeGee]

Cinders as a sexy evil queen in one of the possible endings:



There's a proper illustration for every variant of every ending in the game.