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I may be wrong, but, to be honest, this project seems way too ambitious for a starter project. Are you sure you do not want to start with some smaller and more easy to make project, simply to see how things work and to build some experience? As for your ideas. I have some trouble understanding how it will look in a complete project, but, overall, it depends on how exactly you are going to implement all of your ideas rather than what these ideas are. So far from I get the impression from your explanation that the first half of your game is going to be mostly raising sim-like, with little text and a lot of choices and interaction, and with the story introduced more in adventure game-style (through environment and dialogue), while the second part of your story is going to be more VN-like, with a lot less choices and a lot more narration, and entirely story-focused. That's not a very good structure, in my opinion, because such genre shift would alienate a lot of players. It would be a lot better if the second part also used some modification of the UI from the first part, and/or, rather than just introducing the characters, if the first part also included some long story segments, probably connected to the characters' backstories and why they were chosen to attend that university (or something like that). Anyway, I hope my criticism doesn't discourage you. Good luck!

Epic Works is a pretty unique phenomenon in the EVN scene: an African studio, developing games openly inspired by the Type-Moon visual novels and other classic chuunige. Their first release, Episicava, was something of a glorious trainwreck, launching with multiple technical problems and borderline-unbearable, edgy storytelling replicating most of the worst tropes of the chuuni game subgenre. The follow-ups included an unholy abomination of a nukige known as Analistica Academy, and a clunky and inconsistently written, but occasionally appealing RPG VN The Adventurer’s Tale. None of them proved genuinely impressive, but each showed some forms of progress, particularly in the visual department, which by the time of The Adventurer’s Tale’s release got both appealing and consistent in style and quality. As unhealthy curiosity is one of the driving forces behind my blogging endeavours, I couldn’t stop myself from being attracted by the studio’s second Kickstarter campaign, aimed at creating another chuunige-style VN in the Episicava universe (although with no direct connection to the latter’s main plot). Despite my disappointment with their debut titles, I was very interested whether this new project, Rainbow Dreams, would represent an improvement for the studio and correct the massive issues with tone and writing quality those earlier games suffered from. And despite apparent development issues and heavy delays, resulting in a January 2020 Steam release, I’m happy to say that while not all problems were remedied to an appropriate degree, when it comes to the sheer entertainment factor, Rainbow Dreams is a major step in the right direction. Read the full article at evnchronicles.blogspot.com

Human beings are contradictory creatures, whose behaviour is rarely as consistent as we would like to see and whose motivations are often complex, to the point they’re not fully understood even by the specific person themselves. This fact is often minimized in fiction, which instinctively strives for clear narratives and characters that are ultimately possible to fully understand and assess according to some kind of moral standards. At the same time, there’s undeniable value in exploring the ambiguity of the human condition and ebi-hime is one of the EVN authors that do it with a borderline-painful consistency, often creating harsh or melancholic plots and populating her stories with deeply flawed, realistic-feeling characters. And her latest release, The End of an Actress, definitely do not break this trend. Released on Steam in late February 2020, this new title by ebi is loosely based on the last years of Marie Antoinette’s life, where she was imprisoned by the revolutionaries and eventually executed for her perceived crimes against the French people. It transfers these core events and many features of the queen’s biography into a fictional setting, closely resembling 18th-century France, but without any pretences for full historical accuracy. However, instead of a grant political tale, what plays out on this stage is a very intimate drama involving the deposed queen, Liliane, and Marcus, a revolutionary who led the assault on her palace and unwittingly became her jailor. In isolation and hopelessness, the relationship between the two will be redefined in a few possible directions, fluctuating between naïve fascination, hate and, possibly, mutual understanding and affection, making for a rather captivating literary experience and one of my new favourites in ebi’s catalogue. But what makes it this special? Read the full article at evnchronicles.blogspot.com

I'm a college student studying computer science who got into anime and visual novels about a year ago. ever since then, It's been my dream to create a visual novel of my own! I'm a sucker for sci-fi so of course, that would mean my favorite VN would Steins;Gate Happy to be here!

Thank you for the feedback! As far as the AI puppets, you hit the nail right on the head with my intention for them. like you said, essentially, they have different ideas about their mission. Although, my intention would be to only have like one or two of them blending in, rather than this whole university being filled with them. As for using HS grads going to a university, Ill do some thinking and try to come up with a clever reason why they would be chosen. And if I cant, I will definitely rethink the setting and characters of the story. Perhaps rather than being set in a traditional university, I could set the story in grad school so that these characters will have already had their college education. Also, maybe their initial reason for grouping together could be some sort of group project that the grad school uses rather than a traditional thesis paper? Just some thoughts I had while typing this. As far as the prologue stories, if I can do like you said and make these backstories really significant so that they enhance the main story, I would definitely be up for the challenge. I will definitely dedicate some time to getting into this AI's head to see who it is as a character, and what it really wants. Anyways, i'd just like to thank you again for giving me feedback!

Well, if you liked Little Busters, you probably should play Clannad by the same developer, if you are okay with reading through this behemoth of the novel. Also, Air, but it's unavailable officially, you need to install the fan patch. Also, it's not really what you're asking for, but since you rated both Fault games highly, I'm adding a recommendation for the latest game from the same developers, Mhakna Gramura and Fairy Bell. It's a short fairy-tale-like story about the meaning of growing up. It's a lot shorter than the previous two games, and it but I personally found it pretty interesting, and also pretty impressive in a technical sense.

Maybe I've seen too many android/AI stories recently but one thing that is pretty unclear for me from your description is what the stakes are in the story? I think one of the main reasons I don't find the concept interesting at this point is that you say next to nothing about the AI running the show and that's central to the whole intrigue. Giving it interesting patterns of behaviour and motivations will be crucial, so without seeing any of that I can't say whether you're making a Blade Runner or a Beatless. Also, the fake university full of puppet androids sounds like a massive overkill as a plot device and something that in no reality could remain hidden, unless you set it in some kind of post-apocalyptic, fractured world. Also, why use HS grads to create your ultimate AI? And someone lured in by sports scholarship? Wouldn't you want, like, accomplished (young) scientists and set the whole thing in a research laboratory? That would also make the puppet idea a lot more manageable – maybe have like one or two android helpers to the main AI with different ideas about their mission and the humans helping the process. A great source of conflict and confusion for the protagonists, who might misinterpret where the actual threat is coming from. I kind of like the prologue stories idea, but @Dreamysyu is right that it sets the project for a pretty massive scale. Also, it only makes sense if you want these backstories to play heavily into the main plot, otherwise a few conversations about the character's motivation to come to the place and their backgrounds will do the same. Also, revealing how they were lured in over time might add to the mystery, with characters exchanging that information with each other and starting to feel something is off. That's just what came to my mind after reading your summary, I hope it'll be helpful.

Upon doing some rethinking, I feel like I will probably do away with the 5 initial stories and just focus on the main story. As far as a demo goes, I think I will write it in a similar way I had intended these five stories to be written, except from the perspective of the MC instead. Then the main story fill continue from the demo. I feel like this should remedy the whole genre shift issue while allowing me to keep the current story I have in mind.

For the recommendation, I guess I can recommend Baldr Sky duology and Galaxy Angel trilogy if you didn't mind with sci-fi. Also there's Evenicle as well, and if you didn't mind partially translated VN you can try Amayui as well (Currently the narration was at 63% translated). I don't know if you already play those VNs or not, but if not then I hope my recommendations here could be helpful to you.

You just don't like its delivery, stories, characters, nor character development. It's time to move on. Me, on the other hand, I absolutely love it and can't get enough of it. There's no poor adaptation, it's just not clicking for you; I've read most of the LNs and the anime is a very good adaptation of them. Not everything works for everyone and unfortunately that's the case here for you. There's something very Gen X about its story and characters, so perhaps that's why it resonates with me more.

And so, I'm done with The Twelve Kingdoms. Well, that was definitely something. Actually, I don't think I've seen many fantasy anime inspired by the East Asian rather than Western culture. I think, so far this anime and Yona of the Dawn are the only ones. Well, the world where it takes place is really interesting. I mean, it's the first time when I see in fiction than children aren't born from a woman's womb, but grow on a tree. Overall, the world-building is rather vast, and the plot is interesting. While some of the characters, including the main protagonist, Youko, may seem a bit off-putting at first, all of them get a chance to develop. Sure, it's a bit overly dramatic, but it fits this type of setting quite well. There are four main arcs, and while there is an overarching story, each arc is more or less standalone. I only wish that they had replaced the fourth and the third arcs, since the ending of the third arc would be the ideal place to finish the anime. Ironically, my suggested order seems to be how it was in the original novel. I don't know why they decided to change the order, but it's seems like there were some plans to continue the anime, so maybe the reason is somehow related to that. Sadly, but it didn't happen. I'd say, it is a good 9/10. I guess, I should give more older fantasy anime a try, there may be some other gems among them. And maybe I should finally watch Shiki since it's by the same original author.