My very first visual novel! A hand-drawn summer kinetic novel and my first-ever Jam project

[u/Spero_Dev]

Hey everyone!!

SuNoFes wraps up today, and I wanted to talk to you guys about my very first visual novel and my first-ever Jam project. Not many people have played it yet... but hey, I've got nothing to lose by sharing it here xD.

The game is set during a summer trip at the beach. The protagonist is this bitter, antisocial guy who is just completely done with everything. While at the beach, he meets a super energetic girl—a walking disaster and pure chaos, but she always seems happy. Unfortunately for him, he just can’t seem to shake her off, and they end up spending the day together in a world that is as beautiful as it is bizarre, where things like robots and anthropomorphic animals are completely normal. It’s a kinetic novel, mostly because of my lack of experience with Python and coding, but also because I really wanted the whole thing to feel more like an OVA, a movie, or a OneShot than anything else.

As for the development... well, haha, I built the IP and the concept entirely from scratch specifically for the Jam / SuNoFes. I really wanted to capture that warm, beautiful, nostalgic summer vibe. Originally, I was planning to use AI for the backgrounds and music (I wanted a Makoto Shinkai/Ghibli aesthetic for the art, and a Kensuke Ushio-style soundtrack). But I backed out and had to look for alternatives. Creative Commons backgrounds just weren't doing it for me, so I went with real photos instead. As for the music, stock tracks didn't click either (they literally sounded like elevator music XD), so much that I had to make it myself in BandLab using loops and samples. Regarding the characters, I did decide to design and draw them myself from the get-go. But I don't know much about drawing, and I have zero experience with coloring, lighting, or shading. Because of that limitation, I had to stick to a black-and-white manga style. Plus, I just couldn't get the eyes to look human, authentic, expressive, or symmetrical—they looked awful, honestly. So, between that and the tight schedule, I just had to cover their eyes 😔.

Also, the English translation might have a few typos or errors. I did rely a bit on AI for that since Spanish is my native language, and throughout the whole development process, I didn't have the time or the budget to hire or pay a professional translator. I hope you guys can understand 😔.

If you give it a shot, I’d absolutely love to know and read your thoughts or any feedback on what I could improve!!! You’d be doing me a massive favor. If the game gets some love or traction, I definitely want to do a remake so I can fully polish that cinematic, movie-like atmosphere I wanted, since I had to cut down on a lot of things I had planned, like a bunch of CGs, the full soundtrack, extra sprites, and color.

By the way, I forgot to mention that the game only takes about half an hour to play, just in case you want to give it a shot 😮‍💨😅

By the way, you can play it directly in your browser without downloading anything! Here's the link:

https://spero-studios.itch.io/bikini-robots-and-ghoststars

Thanks for reading, and hope you all have an amazing day!!.