marinist ⎈

a cropped section of a character illustration from about waist to mid-chest, showcasing a painterly style art piece of a person with faded tattoos and practical clothing (a green vest, pouches, belt with a gold ring buckle, thick work gloves) holding a knife.

@orcmouse.bsky.social has been hard at work on finalizing the sprites for my game and getting the updates on them is bringing joy to me every day! here's some lovely details on one character, as a tease ~ #vndev #vnlink

REAL!!!

and now time for #vnlink update! received the assets to put together the ship map, and coded up the first version of it!! #vndev

Marinist Studio: Ship's Log Sapphic narrative games. Rich NPC dynamics. Mechanics with meaning. Coming soon: The Bitter End.

never introduced myself, so hi, i'm marinist!

writer, builder, linguist, data scientist. i'm embarking on this journey to make narrative games with a sapphic focus.

sign up for my mailing list here if you want to keep up with news for my upcoming game~ newsletter.mariniststudio.com

wait...... this sounds like something i need

A history screen in a Ren'Py visual novel. Some images are still placeholders. The history screen takes a paint-splotch look in amber with teal text. The text on screen shows from mid-conversation: Wren: What a charming performance. Rue: It feels like there's something she's not saying. Wren: I'm sure that's the case for all of us. Wren: But for some reason, that one likes to pretend otherwise. Wren: ... Wren: Hey, when you next talk to the captain, tell her the coffee stains on her ass still haven't come out.

#vndev #vnlink everything's moving, can't wait til i can share more!

but in the meantime, i've been really focusing on building dynamics between the characters and implementing more methods of observing those dynamics.

the bioware fan in me is delighted... i get to write party banter!

a representation of a "mindscape" that tracks clues found while investigating the main mystery in a visual novel. the background is a dark foggy scene, the central text says "the ship's mystery", and the different clickable sub-options are: the ship's power, those who leave, the water, the ship's health, the mark, the heart, you.

#vnlink #vndev much progress, much implementation, and MUCH outline. the last of the major systems have been implemented in their first forms, the demo has been scoped, and i can now fully spend my time writing!

omg... olga doesn't die sounds and looks amazing!

A visual novel screen, NVL mode; an illustration of a Persian-inspired character on the right; a paint brushstroke-framed text screen on the left, a placeholder portrait and quick menu options below it; a background of a railing showing the sea.

#vnlink #vndev did a ton of UI work the last couple days and my brain is breaking from moving things slightly to the left and then slightly down and then slightly up again. but loving what i have so far - learning a lot about how to make the visual aspect more interesting with variety and dynamism!

oh! it showed up on my feed just now and i followed a bunch of new people from it (so thank you!) so i assumed others had too

this new starter pack probably :) bsky.app/starter-pack...

stunning visuals!!

absolutely LOVEEEE some central asian rep!!! what a cutie!! let's go Айна~ <3

weekly progress: finished complete pass at implementing mechanics, did a ton of outlining... and wrote some day 1 scenes! #vnlink #vndev

meet anahita <3

so very excited to see what @orcmouse.bsky.social continues to create for my VN in development, the bitter end!

The best game narrative of the year will always be the lesbian visual novel that only 20 people have played

placeholder bg still but starting to mess with more ui! i don't have great handwriting, but i think it does the job! #vndev

succeeded in my weekend sprint of implementing skeleton gameplay loop! what do you think of these not-really-difficulty choices? #vndev #renpy

starting off focusing on just mechanics... no art yet so just trying to make a simple placeholder ui nice enough for me to work with! #vndev #renpy

hey #vndev! just finished the #renpy tutorial, so it begins!