Hi there! The first week of the Spooktober VN Jam has come to an end and we're excited to share what we've made so far!

During the first week of development, our focus first and foremost was to solidify the concept. The plan was simple: make a wholesome horror story (with a manageable scope!!)

> The Plot <

Because we are short on time, we didn't want to make a story about a huge cast of characters and a complicated plot with conspiracies and such. We wanted to keep it up close and personal - a story between two people dealing with an imminent problem.

Thrown-away ideas include (but not limited to): cursed evil twins, modern-day witch hunt, another Hansel & Gretel bloody remake, cool huntress doing cool huntress things, and many more...

What finally made the cut were the "witch" and the "huntress" (well, "female mercenary" now). After that, it's a matter of deciding their backstory, traits, and how they interact with each other.

"The Witch" becomes Yun, the rumored all-powerful wish-granting witch living in the liminal space between the two dimensions, alone in her tiny cabin. According to her, she's only 10 years old.

"The Huntress" then becomes Tove, a female mercenary running away from her previous master, only to find herself attacked by monsters and ended up accidentally opening a portal to the liminal space where Yun lives. Tove is already in her 30s, and despite being very good with her job, she wouldn't say she's enjoying her mercenary life.

The brash, bold and straightforward Tove meets the shy, polite and reserved Yun. Their personality clashes and this will be a story about how they try to understand each other (...or not, depends on your choices) , fights some monsters, and maybe... protect the world?

Living in the boundary between the two dimensions, monsters lurk around the area, ready to attack at any given time. They feed on the negative emotions of humans, be it sadness, anger, revenge and even worry, making it very dangerous for Tove, a mere human, to be there. Yun, being a very powerful witch, will of course try to protect them, but... she seems to be hiding something?

> Concept Art <

Cryoslight here to tell you about the concept designs of our two heroines! My computer crashed and burned just before the jam, so for a while I had to make do with a tiny sketchbook and an ancient Linux machine. But we survived!

Tove's design had to be cool but also a little scrappy and mundane due to her being on the run. Sei and I were both fond of the idea of giving Tove a badass cape, but it turned into a more practical scarf at some point. Tove's personality was still a work in progress at the time I was figuring out her design, but even back then it was clear she'd be a character with many worries - hence the troubled default expression.

Yun! Little Yun is accustomed to mucking around in the forest doing her witchy things. Her clothes get tattered easily, but she knows how to sew patches! Such a talented kid. She even cuts her own hair, although sometimes she misses a spot. She wears clogs and her dress has big pockets for herbs and toads and other such things. To make it obvious that Yun has magical powers, I gave her an unnatural eye color and a matching crystal pendant. This contrasts with Tove's relatively down-to-earth color scheme.

> Overall <

We're off to a good start! We've finished the story outline and character design, and the following weeks will be dedicated to further polish them and work on other assets! 

The monster sprites, CGs, and GUI are all currently in progress, and we'll talk about them more in the next devlog, along with more descriptions about the setting and background.

Thank you for reading and have a wonderful day!

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